Axle High Pulls from Blocks (9”) 47x3 91x3 135x3 179x2 223x2 245.5x2 256.5x4 256.5x4 256.5x4 256.5x4
Zercher Yoke/Sandbag Carry & Loads Z – 175x46’ S – 200x46’ Z – 276x46’ S – 200x46’ EMOM Z – 375x46’ S – 225x46’ Z – 375x46’ S – 225x46’ Z – 375x46’ S – 225x46’ Z – 375x46’ S – 225x46’ Z – 375x46’ S – 225x46’
Seated Leg Curls (2-0-2-0 tempo)/Monster Mondo Deadlift Start Leg Presses 100x5/300x10 150x5/480x10 200x15/660x20 200x8/660x12 200x8/660x12 200x8/660x12
Wide MAG Grip Cable Rows 100x5 140x20 140x20
Stretching
Comments: It has been a week. A lot happened. The invite does appear to be legit. Indication was invite being extended to me despite 4th place finish due to how close the competition was. So with that, I’m aiming training towards the possible worlds competition. Which is its own headache in that I had already got training setup and now have to shuffle things around to get in offseason training and then prep with 7 events. As well as secure the necessary leave to go. I already have the week after the competition approved (I had guessed when it was an was a week off with leave selection) so I need to see if I can get 3 more days off work with potentially giving back days that following week or later (I don’t need September days). So while stressful, also exciting. But speaking of work, the loss of my previous supervisor is already apparent 2 weeks into this current nonsense. Which has me leery about trying to figure out the leave. Also the people at the top are trying to get rid of the full-time telework that has been in place for the last 5yrs at the end of summer. No details other than beginning of August. Nothing about what that means so just causing confusion. Using the same crap of in-person collaboration. Policy changes and a contract for a vital service (has been something for over a decade) ending means next month is going to start of damn rough too. But that can wait until it becomes and actual thing. I got my thoughts in order for training for this Day 3 session and went to bed with plan of getting up at work time to go train. That didn’t happen. My alarm wasn’t going off and I eventually got too suspicious that it was taking too long to get to wake up time. Power had gone out at like 1:00AM so reset my clock and alarm to midnight. So I ended up oversleeping an hour. But I probably needed it. So about an hour behind to my day. Well that also didn’t end up being the case. I ended up being part of a six car accident on the way to the gym. Everyone involved in the accident appeared to be fine. Allegedly two vehicles drove off without sharing information. My brakes didn’t work like they should and I hit the car in front. Their car only a few scratches but the front of my car was crumpled. Drivable but probably not safe. I don’t have a car to drive for a good bit it would seem. Thankfully my dad was able to take me to the gym after putting car at a repair shop. Ended up at the gym about 4hrs after that so it was about when I was planning to already be done. Not really anyone doing strongman at this hour. I had my protein shake before I started training as this was when I’d normally have it after I was done. I didn’t want to be waiting until like 5:00PM to eat after nothing since 9:45AM. Now that hopefully the nonsense for the day was done, I could train. Foam rolling starting things off and then doing neck rehab stuff, lower body warming up and some stretching. While also dealing with stomach being upset. First thing was a new one for me with axle high pulls from blocks. Breaking the axle pull from floor to shoulders into parts to focus has been a thought of mine for some time but usually this idea was shot down with coaching. Well now I’m the captain so I can try out the things I want to. I’ve done high pulls only few times before and didn’t really like them. I strained my forearm the first time I did them because I was using metal plates and couldn’t drop the weight on the floor at the gym (this was like 20yrs ago) and then when they were programmed by others, it was usually where it was so light I could probably just upright row it. For these, I wasn’t sure if I should be doing them with mixed grip like with how I start axle or if I should do them double overhand. I eventually went with double overhand as seemed less likely for me to pull something and get a bit of grip work in. I used the wood blocks to setup things and used the kilogram bumper plates. Plan was to do 4x4 and have like 2-3 reps in the tank. I had no idea what I’d actually be good for here. I wanted to try and keep things without support gear for most things this week and potentially the next 3 weeks after. Certainly a learning curve here. Need to get collars that stay secure on these. I feel like my third set was my best as far as getting it be like I was pulling back and up. Plan is to do these and aim for 2.5-5% increase each time. From there I moved on to moving event stuff. So worlds has some medley events and two of them are quite similar in that sandbag carry and loads are components of it. But one has a zercher yoke carry alternated with sandbag carry and load. I’ve not really been training sandbag carries in over7 months so that is going to be rusty and zercher yoke stuff like more than 20 months at this point. And just from how the cold kind of put me on my duff, I know my conditioning is not where I need it. So need to get good fast. So borrowing from one my earliest training programs that had alternating EMOM between two different events, I felt that was the ticket. So warm up with both things and then do the 10 minutes of work. No weights listed yet for the show but I have an idea of what they might be so assuming that, I’m starting things off with about 67% of those weights. I wasn’t moving super fast on these as I was aware I had many sets to go. The little voice in my head told me to stop after 3 couplings but I just said do just one more until I was done. Shirt was drenched after that and my forearms a bit raw from the tape on the yoke. After how that had whooped me, I realized that I need to drop some things from training to survive. Initially, I was going to do stiff leg deadlifts with the axle for similar reps as the ssb gms from Wednesday. But I felt it was an error to do so after how I was feeling and my hamstrings still feeling the deadlifts and gms. I’ll save them for another block. So moved on to leg pressing. Well, not quite just leg press. The protocol is an MST one for leg press with deadlift start position with breaking in session and then tough session and then lowering the reps range and starting again. This was to be solo but I’ve noticed my knees feel better on these if I do some kind of leg curl. So I supersetted these again. Plan was to do 20 reps on the leg press with like 5RIR and then same weight for 3x10-12. So leg curls with tempo I was going to what felt good and then like half the reps for the superset. I did what I expected here and thankfully my knees held up. I was initially talking my self into just doing the rep set but did the bargaining to get myself through the remaining sets. Another soaked shirt but I only brought two today. Last thing was some rows. Lighter stuff for 2x20. More MST stuff. Plan being wide grip on the row to work upper back and get some reps there to help with all the picking up of sandbags I will be needing to as well as deadlift assistance. This was to be just a breaking in session here so like 6-8RIR. The MAG attachments are a little strange but they do feel good for the grips. First set I was wondering if too easy but fatigue was hitting hard on the second set. I did not plan for it being this late for the training today. Got home and stretched before getting dinner ready.
Axle Clean Complexes (2 hold seconds at knees, only pull to stomach first rep with 2 second hold) 50x1+1 80x1+1 110x1+1 140x1+1 170x1+1 200x1+0 (oops) 200x1+1 200x1+1 200x1+1 200x1+1 200x1+1 200x1+1
Snatch Grip Iso Deadlifts (straps, 3 seconds just off ground) 95x3 135x3 185x3 225x3 265x7 238x7 238x7 238x7
Rack Safety Bar Good Mornings (lower to deadlift pull height) 65x5 115x5 155x15 180x15 205x15
Contralateral Load Single Leg Stepdowns (18”, foot to rear) bw+15x10/10 bw+15x10/10 bw+15x10/10
Stretching
Comments: I thought I had things figured out with my plan. But then I got a curve ball lobbed at me. I woke up to an e-mail from Natural Strongman indicating I had qualified. I immediately wrote back asking if this had been meant for me as I got 4th at the competition. I had thought this wasn’t a option for me. And while the events aren’t the most exciting (I believe I said not worth crossing an ocean for) they could be good for me. But I wasn’t convinced this was meant for me and I hadn’t heard back by the time it was time to train after work. So I didn’t want to deviate much from what I had planned but I wanted to keep that option alive. Work was busy so I didn’t exactly have time at all during the work day to contemplate things and I spent about an hour figuring out how I wanted to proceed before starting training. The is an exquisite soreness in my upper body for my chest, shoulders and triceps from Monday. Foam rolling to start things off. Not as much needed for the lower body but definitely needed it for the upper back considering the training. Then on with the neck rehab stuff which constitutes most of my upper body session warming up. A little more lower body stuff since I was going to be doing some stuff more than just the dip for leg drive like on Monday. Then time to train. The first thing was a day of change as initially looking at starting with deadlift stuff but seeing as how I may be doing worlds, I did some stuff contest specific. So I’ve been toying with treating axle cleans separately from the movement to work on that aspect as that seems to be giving me headache/heartache the last few times it has come up. But didn’t have axle clean and press as an event and turn around not great to allow for integration of the parts as a whole before competing (as next show would be 8 weeks). But this could work with things as they present themselves right now. The plan is taking these “complexes” that work different parts of the axle to shoulder. Plan is to do like 2 weeks at each variation, see how it goes. First session kind of break in and then second session more serious. I felt like I should do training for this week mostly without support stuff. This first variation was with the first rep going for 2ct just above the knees and then popping on to stomach for another 2ct before dropping it. So no clean to shoulder. Then the second rep same pause above knees but no pause as stomach and going up to shoulders. This was going to be the first time I’ve done axle clean without Olympic lifters so this could be interesting. My hope was to be doing low 200’s hopefully. Idea was to work up to a weight that feels like RPE 8-8.5 for 6 sets of these complexes. Shoulders were definitely feeling Monday still. I had a miss on the clean the first try with 200lbs because the axle slid on my shirt. I had not wanted to wear stuff or chalk up for these but I had to put on a rehband belt so that I had some place for purchase with the axle so not sliding down my shirt. Once that was taken care of, I had no issues. I was a little slow on getting my thumb clear of the bar on the right side with the flip sometimes. Felt easier as I went with these and felt very easy and explosive by the end. Hopefully I can push these more next time. But like I said, getting used to it and this was spur of the moment. Shoulder tendons are sore from all the push pressing Monday. Put away the axle and moved on to deadlifts. I was a little tempted to use the axle here since that is the deadlift event but I felt it was best to stick to barbell for what I was about to do and can always use the axle for other stuff once I’m sure. This was the actual start of the previously planned workout for off season for deadlift. Namely, get my deadlift start to not be awful by working that and making things awful. So for that, it meant doing beltless snatch grip deadlifts. Not wide grip as I went all the way to the ends of the grips on the barbell. Also not regular style as I was to break the weight just off the ground and hold it there for a 3ct and then set it back down and pull it like a touch and go rep to lockout. That counted as one rep. This is the protocol from the MST system app. Plan was to work up to a top set of 7 reps and then take off 10% and do 3x7 with that weight. Plan was to have this be a break-in session so top set to leave a good bit in the tank. I had no idea what that would be here. I was kind of hoping it would be low 300’s and I did start very light to get the feel. Not bad at the start but I could tell at 225lbs that this was not going to be something I could do with 300lbs and leave a lot of reps in the tank. I also felt like 275lbs was a bridge too far. I was going to do 255lbs but I decided to do 260lbs as bodyweight and then talked myself up to 265lbs for 120kgs or so. Because I might be going international lol. Didn’t start off bad but after the fifth rep I started to feel taxed and wondering if I miscounted a rep. I was feeling pretty blitzed after that set. My air hasn’t quite come back from the cold at this point so I was sucking wind a good bit here. Lowering the weight for the down sets did not make these any easier. Same amount of fatigue after them. If I wasn’t paying attention, I may have stupidly done another set in error. This was rough and this is why I feel like the demands in the MST system are too much for week to week stuff so doing this every other week seems necessary. I had sweated through my shirt at this point and I didn’t want to be in a wet shirt for the rest of the session so I put on a dry shirt as I got ready for the next thing. It has been a long time since I’ve done legitimate good mornings with weight on my back vs in my arms done zercher style. Idea here with doing ssb gms was to do them from deadlift start position. Work upper back and lower back with the hip hinge. Progression to be ascending sets and dropping reps each session. I used to do this for my secondary accessory lifts more than a decade ago. So for this first go about it, the plan was warm up and do 3x12-15 with 3-5RIR. I figured this would be light because of that as well as just the deadlifting before this that kind of gassed me. I’ve not tried doing more than 12 reps I think in the past on these. I was planning on doing these where I was starting at the rack height but it was raining and the rack in the garage is not sturdy to handle weight on the arms without it sinking down. So started from the top and just paused slightly on the pins at the bottom. These felt awkward. I kind of knew these would be feeling odd considering how paused squats with the ssb had felt when I was doing the previous “off season” stuff. My plan was to do the first set beltless and then add soft belt for the second set and then latch the thicker soft belt for the last set. While I’ve not done 15 reps sets, I feel this has gone down a bit from when I was doing these regularly. I had apparently gotten up to like 350lbs for 6 reps for the most but close to 300lbs I think for 12 reps going up 30lbs a set to that point. First set I guess was fine. Second set definitely feeling tougher. Last set was definitely not leaving 3-5RIR. That was definitely closer to 1RIR territory. I got to 12 reps and was so close to 15 reps so I kept going to get that. If I was smart, I’d have stopped at 12 reps. Oh well. Just need to adjust for next time. But seeing as how I’m like 70lbs or so off where I was, there is room to grow on these and hopefully add some gains to my deadlift here as well. I was really feeling this workout at this point and this was only “half” of what this full session would be with MST (2 more exercises that I moved to another day). The next thing ended up being the last thing for the session. I made the executive decision to not worry about doing abdominal work with all the beltless snatch grip pulls and doing all those goodmorning reps. The stepdowns (worked well for me last training cycle) with weight contralaterally loaded was also going to be more core work with that. I put on knee sleeves for these and jumped right in. Lowered box height to 18” and weight to 15lbs as I knew that I’d be feeling the other stuff from this week. Knees a little rough and I was likely going to be doing these every week. Considering the fatigue I was feeling, these went well enough. I was just glad to be done. No update on the invite validity at this point. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching. Waiting to train pushed everything back so it was about 1:00AM before I got myself to sleep.
Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Paused Half Kneeling Band Face Pulls 24x15—15/abx15 24x15—15/abx15
Stretching
Comments: While not thrilled with getting a cold and having to essentially go with option D as far as training plans go, it is good that I didn’t seem to suffer as much with jetlag and getting back into the swing of things like the last time I went to another time zone. I think part of it was never acclimating to the time zone that saved me. Also good that work wasn’t that bad despite the chaos. And having a 3 day weekend to come back to so that I could get my self in order with sleep and rest. My weekend was spent getting workout plan in order and then mowing the lawn and walking beyond doing some housekeeping. I was a bit surprised I was 260lbs even for my weekly weigh-in as I was over 268lbs for the comp (with shoes on). Still dealing with the neck thing. Still have a bruise on the left arm from fingal finger (right hand is not in pain and fine now). Left shoulder and right knee decided to act up while I was resting. First session on what is probably going to feel like the rest of my life. No working so lifting in the early afternoon. Did a good bit more foam rolling on my lower body then usual as stuff was feeling stiff and tight. Upper body got decently warmed up from the neck rehab protocol. Lower body stuff with the usual circuit to get the knees happy and then static stretching. Got my polarized lens on my glasses since staring into the sun for some of this stuff. I was really not sure how this would go with axle press considering the big ask with volume. 50 reps total with 60% of “training max”. Inverted from the normal style of Juggernaut so doing 10x5 instead of 5x10. I want to keep things crisp and build fatigue and not trying to do reps with fatigue and have bar speed slow down a ton. I wasn’t planning on doing these with no support gear of any kind but it just felt right to be unburdened in the moment. There was anxiety but not so much that I was feeling twitches. First set already had me asking myself what I got into as felt a bit heavy. I told myself I could stop at any time and bargaining to do 5 sets instead of 10 sets but I just kept going anyways. Kept to usual rests here so I got done in about 15 minutes once I started. Was definitely feeling fatigue by the end of this and reconsidering some choices with the rest of the workout. I’d say less than a handful of the reps were things where there were issues with balance so that is good. Next was dips. These seemed to have treated me well this past training cycle and doing them with low volume and adding each time was good. I was planning to pick up where I left off but I think I realized I should drop down in weight after seeing the fatigue from the 50 reps of push press. The other being that it has been about a month since I last did weighted dips. Left shoulder was fine but right shoulder was acting up at the start. So dropped to 50lbs in the event I was too beat up but that felt good so went back to 75lbs (still 15lbs under what I wrote). Shoulders were fine, could feel the triceps missed the attention these hit them with. So honestly not that bad. Moved on to pull ups. I had initially put to just do 2 sets of bodyweight as a coming back to it thing. Leave reps in reserve. Aim was just 2x10 and plan is to do weighted pull-ups this training prep. 12 reps felt pretty comfortable that first set. I definitely was a bit closer to my limit for the second set. Then I decided screw it, put a third set here just to get some more volume. That time the fatigue was quite apparent as I was not really able to get as many reps there. It is nice to see my back is working in concert here and strong. The band assisted stuff I felt helped a good bit with getting my form on these so not going to complete abandon that in the future. More triceps brutalization after that. Going back to the lockouts for overhead. Swapping in log instead of axle. Log seems to be easier to find that balance point vs axle in the rack. But I guess it has been a while or I’ve not really done rack work with the log as it was a bit of pain to set up. I wasn’t too sure what I’d end up hitting here but plan was to do same thing as axle. I feel like this and planned leg press stuff are going to be my “heavy” exercises while I’m doing the lighter fare. Once I felt like I had things sorted here I started with doing 3x6 with plan being to work up over the sets and have the last set be leaving 2RIR or something. First set was maybe too light and a 30lbs jump seemed to be just fine. That weight also felt pretty easy that I felt another 30lbs was good and it might be still too easy. It was not too easy this time. It may have actually been a bit too challenging if I compared it to how axle had been. But it may be just right as 300lbs isn’t bad to start. I went into the garage to finish up the session. Superset to end the training. I really liked how the leaning side lateral raises had hit things in the shoulders as well as when paired with band face pulls. So doing that again. I lowered the weight and band tension and aimed for 15 reps here. I’m not sure if I will try to add weight/band tension each time and lower reps (and then go back up and drop weight to start over) or try to keep the reps the same to progress things. I’ll have to see how long it takes me to recover from this. First set was good but could tell the fatigue was getting to me in the shoulders. Second set was a bit tougher to finish up. Put stuff away before stretching and then having dinner with family.
I’ve had a week to reflect on things and it is ending up to be a longer thought process than I was anticipating so I feel that I need to do a separate post rather than just have it be a little add-on to the beginning of the next week of training.
The Competition
As far as how training went for this competition, I feel that the only thing I got wrong here by the end of it was focusing too much on the “truck tire” aspect with the deadlift event. Considering the unknowns, I feel that I prepared to the best of my ability. I also need to learn my lesson that often the height for the pulls tend to be not in my favor and lower heights tend to be worse for me. This is the second time where I’ve had a show indicate it would be an 18” thick bar pull and it has ended up changed day of to be something else. The first time being my first Pro/Am where it got changed to axle for same weight from the floor as the “wheels” didn’t fit (was also no straps but changed to straps too). It would appear that the deadlift was closer to 16” pull height than 18” pull height for the contest. I’ve had my best performances in deadlift events where I was training 3” lower than contest and while my training weights ended up being lower, I hit big PRs at the show as far as elevated pulls. But I probably need to keep some kind of floor pull in the event this happens. I think I was hoping that lower pick farmer’s would cover that base for me. I’m annoyed with competition but I knew it was going to be like this going into it from seeing the show venue and how it was last year as well as just seeing the other events that have been put on for this particular organization in the USA. I think what most gets me was the specialty stuff like thick handles for Hercules hold and the 2.5” thick bar for the deadlift that I bought to prepare when didn’t end up happening for one reason or another. I’ve been in this long enough to know that events change, weather issues, and other issues but knowing about it being a possibility and then literally all the bad possibilities happening don’t help matters.
The Next Thing
I’m not sure if I will compete again this year. The only shows that have events that I like are pretty much Strongman Corporation Nationals (would need to qualify and weights not posted yet) and the two regional shows happening 7/19/2025 (logistics don’t work to do these). Everything else is just blah to me looking at them as far as Strongman Corporation right now. I have no intention on doing United States Strongman for a few reasons. With SC Nats, I could technically qualify through a show but it doesn’t feel “right” doing it that way just to get there. I kind of feel like I have to “earn” it. I had potentially looked at that route but I wasn’t expecting to get a cold from the travel that put me out of training for this past week beyond walking and neck rehab exercises. As the show that would work is 6/14/2025, only really have 3 weeks to actually train so losing one makes that a no go. I also don’t plan to do online qualifier for Natural Strongman World’s. I have literally 5 days to do it and I’m definitely not there after competing. And it would cost a lot of money after spending a good bit for the past competition with travel, lodging and food. Events are cut down from 8 to 7 this year and I’m only really liking 2 of the events. Two of the events feel very much like the same event just a little different too. It isn’t exciting enough of events to go across an ocean to do in a university gymnasium is all I’m saying.
The Plan
So while I like competition prep peaks and I feel I’m good at doing them with a goal and progression, I feel I need to take an extend off-season. Looking at minimum of 9 weeks and potentially closer to 19 weeks to run through a full offseason to fix my deadlift and get pressing base back. Which would get me to middle of September with the plan so that potentially ready to pull back and start training for a winter show. And if not, still cut back by get more event specific with things (like having implement cleans in the mix) with the offseason for another 12 weeks. So kind of sticks to treat another year like 2024 with 2025. But I feel I have to give this more focused and dedicated off-season a shot to see if I can build up my base so that my pressing and deadlifting can peak higher. It will probably be a boring thing and I will feel sore for the start of it for sure. But going to try and keep things interesting as well. Some stuff I’m keeping from this last prep with modifications. Still doing 3 days a week training. Off season stuff focused toward pressing volume and getting stronger off the floor with deadlifts. Borrowing stuff for the overhead and pressing from MST, Juggernaut Method and 5/3/1. Lower body stuff is also MST but some from past coaching. Event stuff is partially past coaching and MST. I feel the MST stuff is way too much volume so 8 weeks have been pushed out of 16 weeks. Event work being sandbags, yoke and grip stuff. See how this goes.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. A refrain from poet Dylan Thomas’ arguably best known work “Do not go gentle into that good night” from 1947 (published 1952). It just entered the public domain last year. But more and more it seems that it becomes a mantra with strongman. With training, competing and progressing. Every year more challenges and it does seem that despite feeling like my mind is just as sharp, the body takes longer to recover and handles less. Hell, I’ll be 40 in less than 4 months’ time. I will continue as long as I can to be greedy in my pursuit of this passion with enjoying it. Dealing with not enough time to be ready and taking too much time to get ready.
And it has been a fair amount of time since I last competed. Not quite a year but very close to it. I do like to have a longer period to train for competitions but this had not been intentional this time. Life had kind of gotten in the way. I had a planned competition for January this year after deciding I needed to get some aches and such to recover after the last show as well as figure out what I was going to be doing. And things seemed to be going well for me. But then the workload at work doubled during the summer. Then experienced loss with a death of family member followed shortly by a good friend. Really, training was about the only thing besides family and friends that was keeping the little engine that could chugging along. Around November I just started to get depressed and stressed. Training wasn’t feeling good and I was getting extremely anxious going into training sessions. I felt like I was spinning my wheels and not progressing and if anything regressing. I ended up pulling out of the competition and stopped getting coaching/programming and took a week off just to get my head right. It has been over a decade since I did my own programming for training and that was daunting, especially when I’ve tried in recent history I’ve sputtered out in less than a month from doing too much.
Doing my own training (borrowing heavily from past coaching) though seemed to on one hand add stress but on the other added some enjoyment to training that had been missing. I had control and could test out my thoughts in practice as well as feel like I can make executive decisions on the fly if needed rather than feel beholden to the app or word document with the training from up on high. But that is on me with feeling comfort in the structure and routine. I survived about 3 months of my own thing (as well as getting back to within 265lbs/120kgs weight class range) when I felt that I could maybe venture into aiming for something besides gym things. See if I could put it together for a competition. I had felt a lot of regret and shame dropping out of the competition in January as it really made things tough for plans this year and the only option to have the initial plan stay alive would be doing a show in May almost 3,000 miles away.
Which brings us to here. I’ve been a drug free athlete and there has often not really been any incentive to compete in “tested” competition because there really hasn’t been. The first one I did was in 2010 and I got second place to Scott Weech (out of 4 people) and the vice president of the one strongman federation made posts about how we were “ruining the sport”. Thing is that this drug free option pretty much died after that one show and there has been nothing in the US until this past year. The January show as one of these shows with Natural Strongman and if placing high enough, would get invite for their world championships in Galway, Ireland in late August. So I was intrigued but a lot of the events for the USA qualifiers this year were kind of boring. Stuff I could do at home if I wanted to. I like interesting. The west coast one last year had the most interesting events and continued with that this year. It was going to require some unique training for sure. My thinking here was that the extensive traveling would also in a way prep for going to Ireland as well.
Things did not start off smoothly for training this prep nor did it end smoothly. This is beyond the expected with having to change training days and setups or adjust plans on the fly due to biting off more than I could chew. Essentially the very first day of training for this competition during my warm ups I had a tweak/twinge occur in my left side of my neck/shoulder area and pretty much it ebbed in discomfort over the course of the 10 weeks. But always within tolerance. I’ve had issues like that occur before and a few weeks seemed to be enough for it work itself out. I awoke the day after my last “heavy” training session to be in quite a bit of pain and tried to get relief most of that day with plans to go see orthopedic clinic after work the following day. Assessment is nothing wrong with shoulder (despite pain) and coming from my neck. I apparently have cervical kyphosis with pretty much no cartilage in three vertebrae. I was asked if I had been in a vehicular accident based off the x-rays. It would appear this is genetic based off family history unfortunately. So I’m susceptible to issues with my neck and nerve compression and muscles of surrounding area needing to compensate. But I can work with this. Given meds (made sure they weren’t on the banned substance list for the federation) and instructed on PT for the neck.
There was a lot of traveling required for this show. I’ve done many competitions but have only flown to one previously, which was 2017 Strongman Corporation Nationals in Las Vegas. That had been a bit rough with time zone changes and stuff near my max strength limit definitely suffered. It didn’t help that I caught the flu out there and ended up needing to take more time off work to recover. At a 6’7”, I’m not travel sized, so ideally direct flights. But that didn’t seem to make the most sense and this trip was going to require connecting flights besides driving several hours as well as taking a ferry to reach the ultimate destination. Up at 6AM EST on Thursday to drive down to Baltimore with my father to catch first flight to Denver. I don’t fly frequently but it is about 50/50 that I get TSA inspecting my junk and my latent BDE set off the sensor so I got frisked before 9:00AM. Had to run to catch the connecting flight as they were already boarding before we had landed. Not good seats as knees to ears really. But both of us and our luggage made it Seattle. To get to the venue, we’d have to navigate Puget Sound and that either meant driving around it or taking a ferry. So ferry it was. Thankfully it was large enough that it had food services and I got a bowl of chowder and a bowl of chili with Gatorade to hold me over until finally getting to sleepy little Poulsbo at about 8PM PST. Was definitely going to need a day to acclimate.
I try to make travel with competitions memorable it possible and there is time to do so. I could do most events if I wanted to in the gym for these kind of shows. The competition was being held as part of the local Viking Fest for the town founded by Norwegian immigrants in 1880s. Several day event and the main streets are closed for street vendors, other events, parade and a fair. Rain or shine. My brother’s wife’s family has been in the area and my brother had recommended places that my father and I went to on this recoup day. Walked around and went to a local aquarium as had to wait until 5:00PM PST to check in for the contest and I was still on EST. Kind of vegged out until then. I knew that it was going to be on the street and exposed to the elements. But check in went smooth and just had to be ready for the next day. There were going to be 9 people in my weight class including myself so that meant that podium would qualify for World’s. I’d be lying if said I hadn’t been checking social media of the people for the show to get an idea who was coming since not competed with anyone here. I was up early for the show and kept myself busy and moving. Forecast was rain all day. I was feeling a bit of cold (I figured it would happen as the person in front of me was taking Dayquil on the flight) so once I was sure the allergy meds weren’t helping, put popped Dayquil myself.
As is typically the case in most shows, the first event was pressing. Well kind of. If you could call it that. The “pressing” event for this competition was a fingal finger flip for reps. 10’ log pipe with 12” OD. Stated to weigh 350lbs empty. Contest weight being 425lbs so 75lbs of weights added to the tip. I’ve only done this event once before in contest and training for that had not been ideal as I only touched the implement once 3 months prior to the competition as I shortly thereafter fractured my elbow (box jumps) and had to wear a brace and sling for about a month. Then had knee issues and it wasn’t best to spend the time on that with other events. I am fortunate in having access to a gym with fingal fingers (300lbs, 400lbs and 500lbs) but they are a pain to setup. But competing at a show where one was lighter but plateloaded compared to the empty heavy ones showed that I need to be more mindful of that with training as a lighter finger could be quite challenging. I didn’t want the finger to be the only pressing but I realized about half way into the cycle that I needed to consider this as overhead and pressing as I was not recovering well from doing two pressing sessions on top of fingers every other week. I figured that this will likely not be a repfest situation with the weight distribution and the size of the finger (as I had to adjust my pick position). Lower reps here to get technique figured out (as well as different setups with weights and distribution) and hope that other pressing stuff and covers bases. And be prepared for Murphy’s law. Band zercher goodmorning/shrug/high pulls really seemed to replicate the movement with the pick to sternum (I like those for general loading/offseason). Warming up was limited in that only allowed to mess with the empty finger as weight could get stuck in it. I did some empty reps easy as singles and did what I could with walking the weight. I had brought some bands and floor disks to do some more movement specific stuff so not a shock to system when it came time to do this thing. I had signed up early so I got to watch people go here. As I had figured, 4 reps was going to be first. Rain was adding an issue to this. I got set and went for the first rep. And it got caught on my belt. I’ve never had this happen in training. I didn’t panic and I just kept at it, working my way up my body until it was to my sternum and I could press it. This was definitely feeling heavier than what I had done in training so it was good that I had done what I had done to prep here. Push pressed to get up and it was slick. I had to stop walking my hands as I almost slipped. I didn’t pass out from the strain thankfully. There was some issues then on the second flip as the crash pad was too far down the pipe so I couldn’t get my hands under it. I had to pick it up by the lip and then shove the pads slightly to get a place for purchase before starting the next rep. Again, not panicking. Need to be deliberate in my actions with the rain. This second rep went over better. I took my time as I knew that I had one more rep in me that I could get in the time limit. I wouldn’t get credit if it hadn’t touched the pad when time went. This was my best rep yet but just took a little time to get stable to press in the rain. Walking it up was best and kind of held my arms out dramatically afterwards like I pushed it down with telekinesis (mostly for my own amusement). This ended up being enough for 4th here as 4 reps was a 3-way tie for 1st. I was 4th outright as other points were either 1 or 0 on this. So this was about where I was expecting placing to be.
Next up was farmer’s walk. But a bit different from the run of the mill. Initially posted as just farmer’s walk and I was assuming it was either going to be just a straight shot or maybe a max distance with turns. Not quite. Both max weight and max distance. 25’ runs with adding 50lbs each successful 25’. No drops in the 25’ zone or you are done. And you have to load your own weights. 90 seconds. Have fun. These parameters definitely made what is one of my good events a bit more hellish. The pick for farmer’s walk is so draining for me but I can carry and hold no problem. Starting at 200lbs is light stuff. 50lbs jumps also means things get heavy fast and that there will be clear divisions in ability. I’ve been able to hold onto 400lbs for a few seconds from a higher pick point but haven’t gone above 340lbs on farmer’s walk since 2015. Prepping for this, I had no real clue on what the handles would be for this so I trained on a few different handles. Some not by choice as sometimes a pair would go missing for repairs or something. Similar to the fingal finger, it was about halfway into prep that I realized that I needed to adjust training. Trying to do 400lbs was not worth it with the prep time and where my strength was at with making sure I recovered well for everything. Getting 350lbs after the first three in the time limit would be tough but I knew I’d need to work up repeatability of picking up weight while fatigued. Less volume had lead me to feeling like my lower back was like a matchstick in that I only had one strike to be hot and then I’d be useless afterwards. I had hoped that the previous block with deadlifting twice a week would get things good but it apparently was not. Training consisting of EOMOM farmer’s walk and some picks and then building up the leg endurance with sled drags and things like stepdowns, leg curls and leg presses. Even if I’ve not been able to hit or get to contest in training on things like farmer’s, I tend to know what I’m about and do it on the day. The time limit doesn’t feel like a lot when having to add the weights each time. Really disrupts the flow and eats at time. And don’t really get to rest doing so with having to stay bent over getting the weights to save time. I’ve put in the time and it would have to be seen if my everything is needed here. Handles were smooth and lacked knurling but were a higher pick so that benefited me. But lord did the rain start coming down. Talking standing water from the rain. This changed things considerably. To their credit, the helpers were wiping down the handles after each run but that didn’t really help with how much the rain was pouring. Chalk could potentially not be my friend. I wrapped some athletic tape around my wrists to try and create a barrier to stop water from going into my palms. My dad purchased a linen cloth hand towel that I looped in my belt. By the time I was up, best distance was a little over 50’. I got set and went at not max speed on the first run. Not bad but 205lbs shouldn’t be. The weights were wet and filled with water in the nooks and crankies so losing a lot of dry chalk from picking them up. I took my time wiping my hands and handles before getting the next leg down no problem. Now at 305lbs. I just needed to do this length as no one else after me was going to beat that. My intent was to rechalk my hands but I found my pockets were too soaked to get my hands in to the chalk I put there and said screw it and just went. I got about 10’ before my grip went. It was like I was using butter on my hands here. I wasn’t 100% sure I had the furthest distance here which is the only reason I did a repick to make sure I got it. Maybe another 2’ and stopped. I had the win here by almost 10’. Which had me in 2nd place at this point.
I was feeling mighty high at this point. As will be a theme, event names elicit one thing and then I explain what is actually going to be the case. Most people when they think of bag toss, are thinking for over bar. Which like 98% of the time going to be that. You might get somewhere where it is a little different or they try something and ditch it when it becomes too awkward. Well this ended up being a bag toss for distance. 45lbs bag to be yeeted. Any throwing method style allowed. However, some caveats that differentiate from how perhaps a track and field throwing or highland games competition would be. Yes, there is a throwing area and you can fault by stepping out. But the throwing area is a bit different in size and only allowed one single attempt in the 60 seconds. So no best throw in 60 seconds or three attempts. One and done. Also if you foot fault or the bag lands outside the 10’ wide section, you get a zero. So that puts a bit of pressure on. As far as things go with events, this would be the closest thing to “rest” considering what was in store. I had a feeling that a rotational momentum throw would be the best option for distance but I figured it would be tricky to keep in the narrow pocket. So unless I saw a big difference between what I could throw backwards, I was not going for it. I did testing and found that I was averaging 5’ further and honestly wasn’t having any worse aim staying in the span. I was also finding that my lower back was stiffer going over the head and neck getting a little more strain. I figured it would be tough to keep things loose and mobile considering the preceding events. Whereas not an issue with spinning around like a ballerina. That was something that would let me recover from easily and be able to train this weekly. I did some rotational drills at the start of prep and then dropped them as I was becoming more proficient so as to focus on other things that needed work on other events. Alternating with a “heavy” week and a “light” week with the bags. Also using different brand bags as available as not sure what would be used. This was just going to be one of those things where I got one shot and hope everything lines up for success. It's a bold strategy Cotton, let’s see if it pays off for’em. The rain had let up at this point so it was more a fine mist. The bags had been kept dry but obviously getting heavier and wetter as we went. I got to do two warm up tosses with the bag as I wanted to see if I could safely do my spin toss. It was and I did have to slow things down a bit but it was working and I was feeling good. I felt like I could win it with how my throw was feeling. My turn was up and I used a spare t-shirt to wipe down the throwing space so it was dry and I didn’t have to worry about slippage. I was feeling good and loose. Did my thing and chucked it. It went further than any other throw by anyone that day and I was elated at it landed in. But then it kept going and rolled out to the left. And my judge ruled it as out and I just zeroed the throw event. My heart sank as I just missed out on another event win by a foot. I feel the rule was stupid and arbitrary but this was the agreed rule for the competition. Last place here.
I was feeling dejected at this point. The rain picked up hard again. The adrenaline was wearing off and my right hand was starting to hurt from the fingal finger (back of my hand). It wasn’t preventing me from doing anything that needed to be done today. But I was feeling like I just blew my chances. I was still tied for 3rd overall miraculously but the next event was the one I was not expecting the best from. Time to do the deadlifts. Well hopefully that would be the case. Again, initial description was just indicating that this was to be a truck tire deadlift. So I was thinking probably something on a regular bar from like mid shin height maybe. Wrong. Turns out this was going to be with a 2.5” thick bar from 18”. Deadlift hasn’t been great in my competition history (or training) compared to my peers so I figured this was going to be tough for me. And at 660lbs for reps and no suits or briefs (especially after max farmer’s) was making this a challenge on a good day. I had been hoping my previous 12 weeks would be good to get back into feeling confident with deadlifting again and partially yes. But the last bit had kind of sputtered out at the end as I wasn’t recovering enough from the sessions to really put in a good effort at the end of it. So had to work it and get things on track and not overtrain my lower back with everything else. I also purchased a 2.5” thick bar to use for training. I’ve done axles and 2 3/8” bars before but not 2.5”. I’d rather not leave that until day of contest to find out if it messed up my pull form or if I could get my straps to go around it. It does seem that I can get both my figure 6 and figure 8 straps to work here. I did end up having to alter training about half way into the cycle as you guessed it, I wasn’t recovering well enough. Just meant I had to change the focus on the “lighter” weeks. I also adjusted my form slightly with stance. This had been challenging with the thickness of the bar with it wanting to roll out at times as well as sitting in front so much that there wasn’t any point in the lift where tension was off the hamstrings, lower back and glutes. Not even at lockout. Which meant putting down the weight to rest was the best option for me. I did different setups in training to try and get a feel for this to hopefully mimic it. I didn’t get to contest weight in training but darn close so again, hopefully enough effort was put in to pull out all the stops here as a single rep could be big for me. I was not under delusions of winning this event, hopefully mitigate point loss. The setup however did not meet expectations. This ended up just being 18” pull with an axle using Rogue Fitness wheels on rubber mats. The 2.5” thick bars apparently bent. I got a few warm ups in with last being a single at 430lbs and it felt damn heavy. And then had to wait to go. Trying my best to stay warm but I was shivering a good bit from being soaked to the bone. I really needed a rep here to keep a podium spot. The band was playing (literally) and I did my best to hype up here. I was flexing so hard that my belt kept coming loose and had to keep adjusting it. I put my all into this pull and it did end up breaking off the mats on the right side but not the left and it was not going up today. Walked away dejected with another zero. About half the field bombed this as well. Tied for last place.
Feeling even colder at this point. Trying to relax and keep warm for the final event for the show. Things had already run much longer than I had thought per the schedule and really the main reason I came here was like 99% out of reach for me. The planned event to finish things off was the Hercules hold. And you guessed it, not exactly. So yes, it was the Hercules hold setup where hold for time. Using the fingal finger implements for the weights so “350lbs” per hand. But not sure what that is actually going to be in hand. But the twist being the handle grips. Rather than increasing weight across the weight classes, the handle sizes get thicker. So looking at 2” thick handles. I’ve done this event a half dozen times in competition and I’ve won most of the time. Usually falling into two different categories with the weight feeling like it is going to “tear me apart” (which I guess I like?) and “oh, so you just hold it” (which is boring). So kind of have to prepare for both things. I’ve also not done it with thick handles so I invested in some 2” revolving handles. My gym does have a Hercules hold but it takes a good bit to setup (need two people to help run it) and I’ve often found that I really only need to do one session on that actual setup to be good to go. So most of my training has been just working my grip with no straps and tempo back work throughout the week and then doing weighted hangs attaching the 2” rolling handles to the ceiling at the gym. I also lifted the Inch Dumbbell on a whim visiting a gym for a competition I was spectating if that counts as training for this as well. The one thing I did notice was that I did have to actively “crush” the handles since the hands were more open. I generally just have things relaxed so that not expending energy and having the muscles in the forearms and hands fatigue. That may not be the case with this time but I did what I could to prepare. But hopefully this will be a good finish. But this didn’t end up happening. The event ended up being scrapped after a few of the women competitors had gone and it was deemed too dangerous for the athletes and the helpers. So the replacement being a farmer’s hold. I mean this was another banger event for me but it isn’t an exciting one and I wasn’t going to get a chance to warm up for that. Found out the weight was 315lbs pretty as we were set to go. While waiting, I was seriously considering leaving so my dad and I could catch an earlier ferry to Seatle and rest up. But doing so could’ve been bad as if I got randomly selected for drug test and was a no show, I’d get banned for at least 2yrs in this federation. There was also 1% chance I could still pull this off. I’m nearly 3000 miles from home and I should see things through. It was raining again but like in between the intensity of rain for the day. I got out there and put my hands on the handles immediately to keep them from getting further soaked. Ugh did that pick suck. Felt it in my whole being with my chest as well. There was a brief moment it stopped moving and I just gritted my teeth and keep going. No one had failed to stand up with this weight yet. I wasn’t sure what the winning time was and they weren’t reading off times as we went. After the guy next to me dropped it, I asked the judge what the winning time so far was and they said they didn’t know and to just keep holding. So I did. My grip finally went at 54.63 seconds. Which ended up being 15 second more than the next closest time. So ended up with another event win for 1st on the final event.
I was beat at this point. The show had gone about 3-4hrs longer than anticipated. I ended up half a point from being on the podium. Which stings with how close I was. If the bag had been 1’ to the right, I’d have gotten second place here. But if my deadlift was stronger, that wouldn’t have mattered as I’d have been on the podium even with the disqualified throw. As expected, lucky me was selected for the random drug test. I had a feeling and had started drinking water to be hydrated after the deadlift. I was one of four selected. Which didn’t feel like a lot as the last one I did they did podium for the two classes so 6 people. Had to go to the local pub for this and fill out stuff. I of course decided to have performance anxiety and spent a good amount of time with me holding me until finally able to produce a sample. I also ended up hitting my head on a door way a the pub going into the restroom which makes it look like I have an “L” on my forehead. I guess I’ll have to hold that “L” for now.
The conditions and all that were things I knew and expected. Everything that happened was within possible scenarios I stressed about. I went in accepting all of this for the opportunity. Visiting the PNW was worth the trip but I don’t think going that far to do this kind of qualifier or show is worth it in the future. I’ll stick local for the local stuff if I’m going to. I did get to hang out with people I’ve only seen online (Instagram and Reddit) and got to see new things and try out delicious food. This contest and prep had been a proof of concept for me to see if my own training plan can be executed and work. As irritating as the bag toss result is, I’m not going to dwell on it. I swing for the fences every time as that is unabashedly me. But even if that had gone my way, I’d probably be looking at reviewing an off-season to try and troubleshoot my deadlift as that still seems to be a problem area. I’m safely back home but a little under the weather from the stressful traveling and hopefully I will be feeling good by the end of the week to start working towards the next thing.
Axle Push Presses 2 Second Pauses 46x2 76x2 106x2 136x2 136x2 136x2 No Pauses 166x2 166x2 166x2 166x2
Sling Shot Dips/Pull Ups bwx20/bwx10 bwx20/bwx10
Overhand Band Pullaparts µbx15
Band Shoulder Dislocations µbx10
Underthand Band Pullaparts µbx15
Single Arm Band Triceps Extensions µbx30/30
Stretching
Comments: This week did not start off on the right foot. While a bit worn from Saturday session mentally, I was feeling ok. But woke up Sunday morning with painful tightness in the left side of my neck. So much so that I ended up taking anti-inflammatories and analgesic gel to try and get things to calm down. Did soft tissue work as well as research on what the issue was. The discomfort and swirling emotions about what to do essentially had me paralyzed with indecision. I did weight myself (260.8lbs so getting very close to 255lbs range again) but that was about it besides watching videos and reading articles about the pain (and watching anime). So it was a bit of a lazy day and a pity party for one. I had felt that it was probably wise to get it checked out so I know what I’m dealing with but by the time I figured I should do that on Sunday, it was too late to go to the orthopedic injury clinic. So plan would be to do Monday and see what was up. Another day of nothing besides work then as after work to get checked. X-rays done and I got assessed. Nothing wrong with the shoulder despite it feeling like ac joint or possibly shoulder impingement. Apparently I have the neck of someone in a traumatic car accident and walked away. I kind of knew that from the last time I got x-rays for my neck in I want to say 2011-2013 and thought nothing of it as not a big deal made of it other than saying my neck curvature was the wrong way. But apparently I have like no cartilage in the bottom 3 vertebrae of my cervical spine. So prescribed meds to get inflammation down (I made sure to have the medical provider check that not on the list of banned substances for this upcoming competition) and given script for 30 days for physical therapy. The PT stuff not a great time for it and not keen on going through the whole bullshit I had last time with my spine and billing/coverage issues. Now that I know what the problem is (advised I shouldn’t have any exercise restrictions) that it is my neck and not my shoulder, I’ll be doing rehab exercises during my warm ups for training. I also don’t need to drastically change my upper body sessions. As initially I was going to do nothing but rehab exercises for my shoulders if it was that. But since not the case, just going to do what I was going to do and hopefully meds and the new habits/exercises take care of the rest. It has been raining off and on as of late and it just so happened to not be raining for training today. As mentioned above, neck rehab stuff was part of my warming up besides what I’ve been doing. Since the neck rehab stuff seems to get stuff warmed up pretty good, I didn’t feel the need to do some of the shoulder stuff to get ready. I did alter the plan with axle push pressing here. I was initially going to be doing the 5/3/1+ day to finish out but felt it was best to rest/recover and treat the fingal finger session as the last heavy press day. This would be more just keeping some movement in plan. So then I was looking at doing a deload session with 3x5 working up to “60%” in 10% jumps. But I felt like a new lease on life so said screw it, I’ll do something more intent focus than going through the motions. So I did pause push presses for some sets and then increased the weight to do some rebound style with no pauses for some more doubles. No support gear of any kind. Not bad. From there moving on to a superset. Dips pulling back but wanting to do higher reps so slingshot added here. Elbows were a little uncertain here as I guess used to me doing a bit more weight before coming in to do these. The pairing was with pull-ups. No band assistance. This was what I was curious to see as I’ve not done regular pull-ups in quite some time. I’m sure I could do them before today but this would see how they feel. Plan was to leave 2-3RIR. It did feel a little weird not having something to rest my legs on for sure. With how they were feeling initially, I wasn’t expecting to get a solid 10 reps both sets here but I did. So that’s good to know. Last bit of the session was just doing some band stuff with the micro band. Really light and more just for movement/mobility and blood flow. The left shoulder did feel the pull aparts as there is tension still in the neck and upper back. I was actually worried with the dislocations as I thought for sure that would really irritate things like how the overhead toss did but it actually didn’t and felt decent. Single arm band stuff to finish up and right arm definitely felt a lot more fatigue compared to the left arm. So done pretty quick here all things considered. Put stuff away and cooked up dinner. Stretched out before bed.
Bulgarian Split Squats/Single Leg Seated Band Hamstring Curls bwx15--15/abx15--15 bwx15--15/abx15--15
Standing Glute Med Isometric with Swiss Ball/Copenhagen Planks bwx20 seconds/bwx20 seconds bwx20 seconds/bwx20 seconds
Stretching
Comments: Well the meds are certainly helping. Not 100% obviously but there is not much remaining of what I was feeling on Sunday. I think sometimes we get used to a discomfort and not realize how much it was dragging you down when you get some relief from it. I do know I got to be careful with the combo of meds here in that making sure I got food in my stomach so I don’t get a panic attack with the prednisone and be ready for bed time with the muscle relaxers. Getting to sleep as been a little tricky but I’ve been feeling like when I do it has been restful and restorative. I need that with the stress and also to make sure I’m recovered for competing. I feel mood wise I’m on the right track. I got bruises on my chest, neck and back of my right hand that still need to clear out. This won’t be something I’ll miss from this prep from doing fingal fingers haha. The session for today wasn’t much changed from what I had planned to end on from the start. But always a little apprehensive as I get close to competing and wondering if I got things right. I did change up my warming up order as it seemed to make more sense to start with the neck rehab stuff first and then full body/lower body stuff. Just habit of working from toes up from past stuff. Streamlined things a bit with the warming up for the neck rehab. I’m already thinking of ideas to have the neck stuff be part of regular training be it competition prep or offseason. I mean, I got that fancy neck harness and I’ve only really used it for just one thing when it has other stuff. But that’s for another time. I really do with that the Natural Strongman would put up something about potential events for Worlds in the event I qualify for it next weekend. I like to be able to plan things out. I got a rough idea of what I’m going to do if I don’t or decided not to if I want to try and qualify for Strongman Corporation Nationals this year as well as if I decide I’m going back to offseason (and trying something new with that). But not really anything for if I qualify. I know they don’t release all the events upfront as I think last year the final event wasn’t announced until 6 weeks prior. Oh well. It just things I want to think about to distract from other things. So got warmed up and moving around. Upper body stuff with neck good. Triceps (especially the right) had been acting tight in the morning and early afternoon but stopped being dumb by this point in the day. Calves were feeling a bit tighter than expected so spent some time there. Soft tissue work doing more with foam rolling to help with stuff. Knees felt a little achy at the end of things. But plan was naked joints for deload. Workout today did require some setup compared to the previous session in that some items needing to be the special setup. I could’ve just done the thick bar on jack stands but I wanted it to be like the block setup so that I could have the bar/weight feel a certain way. Plan here was to work up in smaller jumps compared to the plate jumps to 50% of contest weight (which also is hopefully my 50% at least) for 6-8 singles with normal rest between them. I’ve done this before for a contest but that time I had some band tension added. I didn’t feel that was conducive to things since I had just done band tension pulls the week prior and this had been done after my last heavy deadlift session instead (and I had been feeling really beat). But I did feel that just ripping up the weight was probably not the best thing as I know it won’t be that easy at show. So I felt like I should do 2 second pauses just breaking the weight off the foam blocks and then pulling violently. Maybe a little worried that the hold and bracing would be stressful to the lower back here but had to fight that feeling of being so fragile. I feel that as I went, that I got better with the intent and the different aspects more concise, precise and direct. So mission accomplished for what I wanted to be feeling here at the end of the pulls. I also pulled what I did on Saturday where I thought I was moving on to the end. Now not entirely my fault in that I added this to the session recently. Initially I was going to just do some lat pulls where in deadlift stance and getting lat contractions. But then figured I’d do the inverted rows again. Then took them out and put banded rows. Well after having something similar in my neck rehab stuff, I decided to put the inverted rows back in. So that meant needing to teardown the deadlift stuff to setup the inverted row stuff (I could’ve worked around the setup if I was doing the supersets to finish up). I think I was thinking these might be too much energy or effort but that is comparing to how these were when I did them like 22 weeks ago after not doing them for a long while. Last week these had been pretty easy. Even better this time around. Not sure why I was worried. From there supersets to end things. The level of difficulty to be very easy. I’ve not really done these since the previous “offseason” block before this so a little rusty. Bulgarian split squats with just bodyweight and single leg seated band leg curls. The split squats were obviously going to feel less good compared to leg curls since bands and I’ve been keeping up with them in some capacity. Split squats weren’t so bad honestly. Little bit of knee creaks. Leg curls were easy. Last thing was another superset. Isometric based stuff for the hips and legs. The one being to push a medicine ball to the wall with hip abduction. I had to do these as part of my lower back rehab stuff years ago and they struck me as quite challenging and intense but safe to do. I had these in mind to use earlier in the prep based off recent training plans but found that I was needing more benefit from other stuff and it hadn’t taken that long to get my hips and glutes involved in pulls again. Not as difficult as I remember these but I’ve gotten better and I’m not dealing with the back and nerve issues. The other side of it was more working adduction with the Copenhagen planks. I’ve liked these but just couldn’t really see a way to shoehorn them in. I was trying to work these area more dynamically with the events but I felt this was probably the best place to put them to work muscles but not stress joints. Feel easier than they had in the past after not doing them. Maybe I’ll do them more often as well. Put stuff away and stretched out before eating dinner. One more training session to go.
May 10, 2025 – Week 10, Day 3
Dynamic Warm Up
Box Jumps 24.5”x2 24.5”x2 24.5”x2 24.5”x2
GHD Back Extensions w/Bands abx5 abx5 abx5 Kettlebell Bulgarian Split Romanian Deadlifts (contra-loaded) 65x12/12 65x12/12
Comments: Welp, the last one for this prep. Friday was a bit stressful with work and my schedule is really going to be packed for work stuff to make up for being out of office for 3 days. I’m also not really going to have much in the way of breaks coming back either. Stayed up a bit late Friday I think since I knew I could sleep in. I was somewhat thinking about going out to train in Lancaster but thought it was better to just do stuff at home as I could and then I wouldn’t need to spend money for gas and travel. Could sleep in more and still have plenty of day. I will need to spend time this weekend getting travel stuff ready and collect thoughts as I imagine I won’t really have time for that this coming week. Stomach was acting up a bit after breakfast with a lot of indigestion but thankfully that went away. But I did wait a bit to start training. Soft tissue and foam rolling stuff and then neck rehab before moving on to lower body base mobility stuff and then stretching. Feeling ok. Calves were feeling a little tight. Bounding stuff to start as box jumps. I don’t have access to as much stuff that is really “safe” for box jumping and plan wasn’t to push things here. Just to keep something in. About 75% of what I’ve done for my best triple. I was initially going to do 3x2. I’m not sure why I get hesitancy with doing the jumps at home more so than the gym as it feels like it is higher than it is. I think now that I’ve realized that I stagger step before my jump that I’m leaning into that more so that I feel like I’m comfortable. Squaring up doesn’t feel natural I guess for me. As it usually the case I feel better with these as I go, so I did an extra set. Still a deload in the height and the volume/reps. No throwing this time. If I was, it would’ve been with something light or a medicine/slam ball. Didn’t want to deal with emptying sand out of my throw bag so didn’t bother entertaining it and hopefully the warming up movements and box jumps keep me feeling “springy”. To kind of deload my zercher stuff against bands, did back extensions against bands. I didn’t get things to be the right intensity for this with the setup I had. This would’ve been better setup at the gym. I didn’t want things to be too tough setting up the bands and getting into position. Didn’t realize the first set I should probably anchor the back of the setup with moving fast against bands. I added sandbags and weights after that. But doing that wasn’t really enough to keep things stable as not weighing down the front part was causing me to still move back even with some 180lbs of weight and getting further away from the dumbbells I anchored the band too. So chalk that up as a misfire for next time. Moving on from there to some unliteral stuff. The exercise was indicated to be one leg rdl with weight in offset side only. The balance factor with the one leg is always a hassle and I’ve found that I get a good bit more with taking some of that out of the equation such as doing b-stance. But I didn’t want to do that this time. I figured I’d try out a different verification where I was using the little rolling support I do for my Bulgarian split squats to do that for the non-lifting leg for the rdls. I also didn’t want to make things difficult to get setup into position here since this was a rdl so I put weight on my kettlebell handle which would have the pick height elevated a good bit. These were interesting with how they felt. Left side felt much better balance wise whereas the right side it definitely was trickier. Would be interesting do these in some capacity like doing the split squats. From there doing some more unilateral work. Been doing a lot of step downs this training so this was step ups. The main thing though was the band distraction that would make it so I had to do a TKE at lockout to hopefully get knee function in a good spot. A little tricky with setup with the band tension but I made it work and it felt right. Left side better side on these as far as how the knee felt as I knew right side there would be the creaking/crackling happening. I definitely could’ve done both unilateral exercise with no rest between sides (like I did on Day 2 with the split squats and band curls) but I felt I should do appropriate break between sides since not supersetted and I may try doing these as their own thing in the future. That covered the lifting part of the day. Inside to do backwards treadmill stuff. Plan was same as last week with 2 sets of 5 minutes. The treadmill I have can’t go as high on incline which is fine. I think I was better ready for what to expect this time and also not supremely drained by the training at this point. 5 minutes does feel like a long time here on this but it wasn’t like I was wondering why I was doing it at 30 seconds like last week at least. I felt fine enough after the first set. I had purposely not put anything away that I had setup for the session (beyond the mobility prep) so that I had something to do as an active rest before doing the second set. Second set I feel was better (similar to last week) and I just counted in my head to break up the chunks and pass time. I did end up counting fast by like 90 seconds somehow. Oh well. Ate a sandwich and cooled off before eventually stretching out after my stomach settled some more. I managed to mostly survive my own training and just go to live through another week and see where the cards fall.
Paused Close Grip 3-Board Bench Presses (1 second) 45x6 95x5 135x4 185x3 225x2 275x6 275x6 (had to rerack it) 275x6
Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Half Kneeling Band Face Pulls/Band Incline Tate Extensions 35x15—15/sbx15/ab+mbx20 35x15—15/sbx15/ab+mbx20
Stretching
Comments: Really only four more workouts where I’ll be pushing the weights this prep. Not sure if it has sunk in yet that I’m competing very soon. Deload next week and then the following week is taking two airplanes to go about 3,000 miles to compete. Bodyweight down more as just under 262lbs somehow. This is about what I had weighed in at in 2023 Nationals the day of. Not trying to really drop off weight but keeping an eye on things. Saturday training is the only thing that should be stressful for me this week. Right knee a little stiff from Saturday. Forearms feeling Saturday too. Just not sure if Hercules hold or the axle picks after the workout the main culprit. And still got the left shoulder thing still present but generally doesn’t make a peep unless I try to do certain movements. It does seem to be more tied with neck I think at this point. I tend to mess around with things on this session with the no leg drive pressing day to see if anything triggers it and try to warm up. I’m likely going to need to avoid certain exercises in my warming up prep going forward while others are keepers. At least weather was nice today. Log strict pressing with bands this time around. More weight for this last week and dropping a set off so 4x3 with same band setup. I didn’t feel like my abs were sore this time around so like I said, used to the ab wheel stuff by this point. Left shoulder was feeling a little grumpy on the extension to full lockout at the start. That is on me doing stuff warming up that seemed to piss it off a bit. But it got better as I went. I did the holds on the last rep of each set working up as well like last time. These seemed to go well enough. No hard belt or wrist wraps like I’ve been doing. I did increased the weight 1lbs from what I had so that it was a nice 170lbs. I got the work done but I wasn’t quite feeling like I was hyped up with training. I didn’t need it but I was feeling a little “dull” mentally. A similar feeling to how I was at the end of the Saturday session doing the leg curls and leg presses. Put that stuff away and moved on to band assisted pull-ups. Same goal as last time with the reps and sets. This is going to be the last week of these as next week I’ll do some unassisted to end the training cycle with deload week. Not sure what is in store for after this. I liked how the progression last week had felt with the adjusting in height of same band. The lowest setting for the sets this time. Barely any help and can actually leave the band fully at the top at times. I did have a little bit of the crunchy shoulder on the left at the start but not present after the first three reps or so. These felt good and I managed to do 3x10 on here again. Tear down the outside stuff before going into the garage for the rest of it. The soft close grip board pressing with pauses. I was hoping my shoulders tolerated these. And thankfully they did. This would also be the last week with them this prep. Not sure about going forward as well. Depends on what is needed and recovery. I feel like some things feel better and I recover better for them. In either case, same warming up as I had done the past few times. Aim being to add 10lbs. Warming up was feeling pretty good. I was still feeling like not able to tap into the hype train if needed here. The first set actually felt pretty good. Which really surprised me when I struggled on the second set. Just seemed like my triceps weren’t firing right. Just something felt off. No pain or anything like that. Just felt like it got darn heavy and I was struggling to push it. It is possible that my forearms being sore and fatigued had something to do with it. I ended up having to rack the weight after 3 reps and take a moment to rebrace and commit and get those 3 other reps. I didn’t like that. I took a bit longer break then before going for the last set. That also was a tough one but I didn’t need to rerack the weight so I guess that is good. But it was tough getting the last few reps. Felt like quite a difference. Well good thing deloading next week as seems like I need it at this point. Finishing things off with a triset. This didn’t go as smooth as last time I did it. Mainly because the band tension needed to be more for two of the exercises due to ease for the one and decrease in reps for the other. I adjust the dumbbell so that it was spread out more so that I could clear my thigh doing the leaning side laterals. It actually felt easier with more weight. At least for my right side. This had been challenging and the left side struggled going right to the next side. I made a note of that to see if on the next set if taking a brief rest helped. I then had a heck of a time with the other two exercises with trying to get different band setups that took a bit longer than I’d like to finally figure out. Left shoulder not a fan of the first set of face pulls with the strong band. Using more than one band for the incline band Tate’s was bringing back memories of why I didn’t really do these earlier. Second go through I did take a brief break between sides on the laterals and that went much better. I guess I’ve gotten to a point where using enough weight I can kind of rest between sides like with my unilateral leg work. Band face pull felt much better the second set. Second set of the Tate’s was frustrating and just reminded me not worth it next time I need a triceps exercise. Put stuff away and finished cooking up dinner. Stretched after eating.
April 30, 2025 – Week 9, Day 2
Dynamic Warm Up
2.5” Thick Bar 18” Jack Pulls w/ bands (straps) No Bands 161x2 Add Bands (+50lbs bottom/+100lbs top) 161x2 251x2 341x2 431x2 431x2 431x2 431x2 431x2 431x2
Inverted Ring Rows bwx15 bwx15 bwx15
Single Leg Stepdowns (foot to rear, 21”) bwx3/3 bw+25x10/10 bw+25x10/10
Paused Single Leg Hamstring Bridges (5ct) bwx10/10 bwx10/10
Paused Ab Rollouts (5ct) bwx18 bwx9 bwx3
Stretching
Comments: My shoulders and upper back were really tense on Tuesday and seemed to be the case Wednesday as well. But seemed to be more the middle of my back on Wednesday. I didn’t think the stuff I had done Monday would’ve stressed the upper back so much (face pulls and pull ups) so I’m thinking the culprit here is the zercher stuff with the band tension having been essentially doubled. I had to wake up early today for fasted blood work to finish up my annual physical. So that meant not eating as much the day before as well. I wasn’t sure if I had wanted to move the session a day but I figured I needed to stick to the plan I have so that I got as much rest as possible before doing my last go at the events this weekend. I thankfully didn’t have any bruising in the arm from the blood draw like last year. Hopefully numbers are better after the 20lbs weight change and stopping the turmeric powder. I did a bit more soft tissue work for my calves because just felt tight before starting the session. I seemed ok but I was a little uneasy with how the midback was tense as what I was going to be doing wasn’t exactly going to be nice to it. The lighter week for deadlifts but by no means the easier. It is still hitting mid 80% of training max on these with the band tension at the top. Change here with it being a bit more of a jump in weight (26lbs) but dropping from 5x3 to 6x2. So more sets and less reps per set. Plate jumps working up too as just easier to build up against the bands and save energy. Duct taping the wood panels worked like a charm last time. I was getting a little silly with the plate placement but probably not the wisest thing as the collars don’t really fit secure on this bar. I had bumper plates initially and then swapped in the wagon wheels just for looks. This definitely felt tougher than the last two times. Farmer’s will be the last heavy pulls this Saturday as next time will be deload with like 50%. Plan was to also have most of this session be of lesser intensity to pull back the other stuff. I felt like that made sense after seeing how I was a little off energy wise on Monday. For back work, the paused chest supported dumbbell rows were replaced. I wasn’t going to be doing this week anyways. Set up the inverted ring rows as those tend to feel good on my back and shoulders. It did take up some time putting away the deadlift platform and then setting this up to then be put away afterwards as well. But I was moving through things fast enough and the breaks with teardown gave me opportunities to rehydrate. Plan here was just bodyweight and doing 3x10-15 with a few RIR. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel. When I first started doing my own training in December, I was not conditioned for these and 10 reps was challenging enough. So good to see that 15 reps is the new 10 reps for those. These did feel surprisingly good. From there moving on step downs. I was initially going to stick to the same weight as last week or slightly heavier. But that was before I decided it probably made sense to go lighter so as to pull back and recover a little more as I’ll probably need it. So looking at 25lbs instead of 50lbs. And then I had another thought. Since I’m going lighter, let’s see if I can do 21” height as that is the most I’d done for ROM on these back in 2022. Surprisingly, I was able to do these in the garage under the ceiling light recess. My knees were quite cranky with bodyweight but usually that is the getting used to it phase. This wasn’t something like the first week where I couldn’t support myself all the way down and losing it due to pain. The weighted sets actually went better here. So back to the full ROM I was doing on these from about 2.5yrs ago. Not sure what the future will bring but these do seem to be the safest for my knees. Will depend on what is the next thing after this as maybe I need to work on other stuff. Then on to the hamstring bridges. A little different this week. Plan here was just 2x10. Pulling way back on the volume but increasing the hold time. My intent last time was get in more reps with the movement and this time to really focus on the holds with lower reps. I started with my right side this time as that seemed to be the side that was lagging. Similar to how the paused single leg hip thrusts were in December, it just needed a session to get used to them again. These seemed to go much smoother this time around. Ab wheel to finish out the night. Same as last time with 30 reps total over however many sets with the 5ct holds. It was ambitious goal to try to get it in 2 sets but I was quite close here. Put stuff away and cooked up dinner before eating and then stretching. Figured it was better to try to get to sleep earlier to make up for the earlier rising and recover. Just four more workouts to go.
Comments: I was nervous and anxious coming into this session. Common refrain. I think part of it was related to what was I do be doing as far as the finishing stuff as far as overhead with deload. Fingal fingers is not light and originally I was looking at doing my last heavy session on Monday to end the 5/3/1 but that was prior to having my shoulders feeling a bit more beat than I would’ve liked this week. So probably makes sense to treat this session as the last heavy overhead day to allow more recovery and truly deload just about everything next week. Especially considering I have a lot of interviews scheduled for the week I leave so rather just be on autopilot mode. So that partially resolved things in my head. The other was in regards to the last heavy farmer’s. I had not expected things to be feeling this tough for this event in theory and I was wondering if it was wise to try for the top end stuff. Trying to review past trainings to see what made the most sense recovery wise for me. Generally it has seemed to be that I’ve had farmer’s when heavy be tested either further out or not quite contest weight at this point. Just with how the training has turned out. Last time I did these workouts for the farmer’s event I had ended up being too beat that I had skipped the last heavy day (which would be this session) and I managed to do it at the show. So that part of if it was worth trying and risks associated. But I guess get to it when I get to it. I’m going to have mistakes with doing my own thing. So I did get up at work time to get out to train. But couldn’t leave right away as there had been a storm the night before and tree branch had landed in my driveway so had to move that. Traffic really is so much better when I do this. Another humid day with alternating between sunny and cloudy. People were there training but not the stuff I was expecting considering last time. I guess not everyone does an alternating schedule like me. I’m not sure if it was the humidity or being up early and taking all the allergy meds but I was feeling a little winded and sweaty doing my warming up. I realized after the fact that I didn’t quite do the same warming up I had done last time for these events but oh well. So finger to start like contest. I wasn’t too sure what I’d be doing here. I’d done the 500lbs finger last time and that was a plan to setup and put away. I didn’t quite have the help I did that time to setup. My initial thoughts here was to use the 400lbs finger and see about adding weight to it to get a better idea of the contest finger with loading in the end vs over the entire implement. The pick up with 500lbs hadn’t been bad but the walking was where the added weight was noticed. Likely the added weight would make the clean/pick harder and then walking it up would feel similar to whatever weight. I wasn’t feeling the best here today with these at the start. I was feeling slow and timid. Perhaps because I knew that I couldn’t just one motion it with heavier stuff beyond the 400lbs and that I’d need to use the other bump it up style for the contest with size. I setup things outside just to get that feel for it being on pavement (apparently not good as got a message Sunday from gym owners not wanting me to use the plyo pads on concrete oops). I knew that I could do 25lbs added to the finger with the slam ball since it fit. But beyond that was uncertain. I had tested with using that same slam ball and then attaching one of those hanging straps for hanging leg raises and then hooking chains to that. It seemed like it would work but really convoluted and with how the chains would be, the weight would be further down the finger so not all condensed near the top like contest. I had initially thought the 60lbs slam ball wouldn’t work as I tried it a few weeks prior to see if it fit. But I apparently hadn’t shoved hard enough as I was able to get it to fit. 25lbs added was a bit difference so I could only imagine 60lbs. Yep, that was tough. I had to push press it the first time after it taking a bit to get to my shoulder. Felt tougher than the 500lbs finger for sure. So this was a good thing to try this out. I rested a bit and then flipped it the other way and that went much smoother. Since the ball wasn’t staying in the finger, I took it out just to do an easy set with the empty finger for the reps I figure I could get at the heavy weight. The weight gone was a big difference as I was able to essentially catch it at shoulders and press up right away. So that was good. I feel like there are aspects where this finger is going to be easier and others where it is harder than contest. Took a bit of time with putting things away as it was a lot of weight but also so that I could hopefully recover well enough for farmer’s walk setup which was that I was really nervous about. Plan was to try and do contest run here as well as see about warming up in a way that will be conducive to getting ready at competition. The handles I had been using still not available and likely being hidden for the show next week in Pittsburgh. I was not going to use those Titan Fitness handles again as still have blood blisters from them two weeks prior. Honestly, only going to use them if specifically mentioned as being used at a show as I really don’t like them with how they feel in my hands. So I was going to use the I-beam handles that were 18” pick. I don’t know exactly what handles will be at show but I have a feeling they will be 75lbs empty or so. Likely a Bartos knock-off I’d wager. As far as warming up, I was going to do straight runs of 30’ with going up 40-50lbs jumps. I figured that it was not good to try and do a run with 297lbs and that a pick and hold would be the best thing. I could definitely tell there was some fatigue but stuff was feeling good in my grip and I was moving well with it. Just heavy picking up and feeling pressure on body. Stripped things down for the contest run plan. I set it up for 3 weight increases as I knew timewise that 4 wasn’t happening and definitely not having the strength at this time for 400lbs pick either. Really fighting nerves here. I feel like things were moving well. 302lbs felt better than 300lbs last time and it didn’t feel so heavy that it was my limit. I felt like 352lbs had a real shot. I didn’t quite land the handles even on the drop and I did fumble the one plate so I felt I was short on time. I grunted and shouted and went for it but couldn’t quite get the full weight up and break the sticking point. My grip felt fine at least. I was a bit disappointed with myself in that I wasn’t able to do it. Despite telling myself that this was actually the most I’ve attempted on farmer’s walk from this height since my 2016 back injury. I’ve not done more than 325lbs on these handles at this height either. And this was after doing three runs no rest and loading my own weights which is apparently much tougher than just going lol. 340lbs is the most weight I’ve done on farmer’s walk from a standard height since the back injury in 2016 and that had been a maximum effort with full rest. But even with knowing all that, I feel like I should still be able to do that thing. But it doesn’t feel impossible compared to last time. Just have to again, see where I am and on the day and what is needed. So then on to bag throws. Well, I was supposed to but I was feeling so beat/dejected with farmer’s walk I thought I was done and got to doing my conditioning work of backwards treadmill pushes on incline. Plan there was to do 2 sets of 5 minutes. But fatigue makes cowards of us all and I was really not sure how I was going to do this when I was already regretting my decision 30 seconds into it. So I was going to stop at just the one set but then I realized afterwards that I was to do some throws and figured I can’t just completely skip that. So I setup in the same spot as last week. Good thing I did bring my own 40lbs bag as the 45lbs and 40lbs bag had both burst today while someone was using them. Ugh. Setup stuff and kind of went right into it rather than try to do some movement prep. I was kind of on fumes mentally and physically at this point and this was just get some fatigued touches. This was definitely not my best throwing session. Obviously better throws when fresh. Plan was 5-8 throws and I kind of knew I was going to be doing just 5. Good call as my last throw was my worst distance wise. I was dealing with the fatigue/apathy and then there was a little girl kept riding her tricycle near me that I had to keep an eye on. Just to make sure I was picking the right throw style for me, I did two overhead throws and those were terrible. Besides irritating my left shoulder I was not getting close to the distance I was getting with my bad spin throws today. Guess I stick with what works even if I have some self-doubts. Seeing as how this was enough time for me to recover, I then did the second set of backwards treadmill stuff. It didn’t feel as bad at the first had. Go figure. Put stuff away and downed my shake. Stretched out at the gym before driving home as it was a little earlier than it has been the past few times. I think I wanted to stretch out with the good stuff at my disposal to try and get things to feel good.
I’m a little taller than 6′6″ and I really like to lift weights. I’m a competitor in amateur strongman contests. My hope is to become a competitive professional strongman. Currently I'm doing offseason training. I’m not a major competitor yet and I have a long way to go but I’m having fun.
