May 4, 2025 - May 10, 2025 - Week 10

 May 6, 2025 – Week 10, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

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.

May 8, 2025 – Week 10, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Paused 2.5” Thick Bar 18” Block Pulls (straps, 2 seconds off blocks)
170x1
220x1
270x1
330x1
330x1
330x1
330x1
330x1
330x1
330x1
330x1

Inverted Rows
bwx15
bwx15

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

12” Step Ups with Band TKEs
lbx15/15
lbx15/15

Backwards Treadmill Pushes (10-degree incline)
nullx5 minutes
nullx5 minutes

Stretching

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.

April 27, 2025 - May 3, 2025 - Week 9

 April 28, 2025 – Week 9, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Strict Presses w/ bands (head through on last rep only, 5 seconds hold)
No Bands
87x3
Add Bands (+25lbs bottom/+40lbs top)
90x3
120x3
145x3
170x3
170x3
170x3
170x3

Band Assisted Pull-up (stacked)
Pin 14
lbx4
Pin 19
lbx4
Pin 24
lbx10
lbx10
lbx10

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.

May 3, 2025 – Week 9, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Fingal Fingers
400x1
400+25x1
400+60x1
400+60x1
400x4

I-Beam Farmer’s Walks (18” pick)
117x30’
167x30’
207x30’
257x30’    
297xpick (5 second hold)
202x30’/252x30’/302x30’/352x0’ in ??.?? seconds

Sandbag Throws (rotational style)
40x26’8”
40x27’3”
40x27’4”
40x26’9”
40x23’10”

Backwards Treadmill Pushes (15-degree incline)
nullx5 minutes
nullx5 minutes

Stretching

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.