Toes Elevated Dumbbell Romanian Deadlifts 70’sx12 70’sx12 70’sx12 70’sx12
Band Face Pulls/Heel Elevated Goblet Squats (no lockouts) sbx20/bw+40x20 sbx20/bw+40x20
Stretching
Comments: I feel like my coworkers are stressed but I’m kind of just used to everything being on fire. Walking felt good Tuesday. Nice to walk during my lunch break again. Still got some neck issue thing at this time. No changes really to Day 2 this week compared to last week, just heavier or more reps really. Day 3 is where things get more specific and interesting. No further things posted about either competition at this time. Kind of entertaining myself with comparing other aspects like travel and costs in the meantime. Felt like I might need nasal spray in the morning but it seemed to go away. Soft tissue foam rolling starting things and nothing really needed a ton this time around. Left calf at the top needed it the most today. Other stuff was about the normal. Upper back wasn’t anywhere near as sore or tight as Monday. Neck rehab stuff followed. Felt alright, some stuff felt needed and other stuff just kind of superfluous. Again, quite surprised nothing really sore from the upper body tempo work. Lower body stretching was good and so was dead hang after that. Then on to the workout. Like I mentioned earlier, this was essentially same workout as last week but either more weight or move volume. So starting things off with the same eccentric loaded trap bar deadlifts with a split stance. These had been pretty rough last week. Notes were try and push these to RPE 7.5-8 and do 4x6. I had miscounted on some sets last week. I figured I could do more weight this time around but that I should probably treat each side as its own set so that I wasn’t making things not so good on the other side as the grip doesn’t get a rest when switching sides. I didn’t realize until today that my smaller/denser 45’s will fit on this when flipped over and not be touching the ground. So I went with aggressive 90lbs jumps and lowered the reps I did warming up with intent to go a bit heavier and see if resting between sides improved things. I did liquid chalk and regular chalk here. First half of first set wasn’t bad. I was considering increasing the weight each set by like 10lbs but my balance wasn’t quite that good on the other half so had me reconsider that line of approach. And these were feeling pretty taxing between sides so rest was definitely needed. I might have done an extra rep on a set at some point. This was tough in that I was having hard time with stopping myself from yawning and my nose was starting to run. Breathing was hard too. But I made it through these eventually with 40lbs more than last time and an extra set. I took my time to recover from that as the next thing was also not a fun one to do and get through. I turned on the small oscillating fan to have better air flow for this one. A superset of dumbbell high pulls and alternating reverse lunges. Notes were to go a bit heavier on the high pulls and to add weight on the lunges holding in a goblet squat style. Reps were lowered here with the high pulls being 8-10 and 10 reps each side on the lunges. Knees didn’t feel as terrible doing lunges and warming up this time around. I figured I should be able to do my 70’s for 8 reps. I wasn’t going to push beyond that as I wanted to see how my body handled the lunges this time and the trap bar stuff was a lot more taxing this time around. Hard to guage things with many reps on explosive movements. Gives me room to grow with these weights for next time. The high pulls weren’t bad and the lunges were decent here. I was kind of thinking I should go heavier but save that for next time around assuming this coming week has similar stuff. I actually seemed to recover well from the first and then doing the second set but needed longer rest after the second set before doing the third set. Toe elevated dumbbell rdls was next. I took a slight break to walk to my folks house to check on things while they are away and then came back. Give me a chance to get my air back and distract me from wanting to drink anything as I can’t really keep things down safely after I start on this particular session. 4x12 on these. I asked if I should try to push things more as these were quite easy last week. Advised I can increase if I feel like I’ll be able to maintain the stretch and form. I figured that it was best to just do the 70’s again because it would be a hassle with the plateloaded dumbbells when these feel great as is but are light. The plateloaded handles would get cumbersome. These did feel a bit more challenging this time around but I think that is more due to having done 40lbs more on the trap bar stuff and 60lbs more on dumbbell high pulls. These felt and moved easy and good stretch but I was breathing a bit heavy compared to last time. Almost done with today. Another superset to finish things off. Again, band face pulls and heel elevated goblet squats. Change here in that only two sets but reps now 20. Also advised to not lockout my knees on the goblet squats to keep constant tension on the quads. I took a bit to kind of recover mentally before doing these. I think since last exercise and I was expecting this to be more challenging than it ended up being. My knees didn’t really ache on these goblet squats this week. I did sit in a deep squat position for a little bit before hand so maybe that helped. First set was pretty easy. Fatigue did become apparent on the second set but still fine. Could tell my right quad was getting fatigued. Still have little lingering of the hip flexor thing and still some bruising on that leg from Illinois but slowly getting better and forgetting about the aches and such. I put stuff away as well as put some equipment into my car for this weekend to transport. Ate dinner before stretching out.
Dumbbell Squeeze Bench Presses (4-0-4-0 tempo)/Med Ball Side to Side Slams 52’sx8 – 10x6/6 54.5’sx8 – 10x6/6 57’sx8 – 10x6/6
Seated Band Pull Aparts mbx25 mbx25 mbx25 mbx25
Stretching
Comments: Felt pretty blah at work today. I had hoped getting plenty of rest on the weekend and then being on telework rotation would temper that but I guess I’m still just exhausted from the constant deluge or bullshit each and every day. It is getting colder again with a frost warning for tomorrow morning. It had been 90 like a week ago. Bodyweight jumped up a good bit from what it was before the competition. I was about 256ish and now 262ish. As I’ve mentioned, it is kind of staggering how much better I feel when the work reverts to my off site schedule vs on site schedule. At this time, only one event has been announced for Worlds and it is axle squat (I had a feeling it would come back) so regardless of which big show I do in August, I’m going to be doing squatting with an axle and first show with a squat event. I’m not adverse to doing so, just doesn’t come up and I’m not that good with squatting. That will need a bit of head start compared to other events since I think it has been over 13yrs since I did an axle squat haha. Anyways, that is later. Now is this session. Which was going to be similar to the Day 1 from last week. I kind of suspected that but wasn’t too sure. Soft tissue work to start things off. I didn’t need a ton on my legs but boy howdy did my upper back need a lot. Really sore from the past two training sessions. Neck rehab was fine. It is taking quite a while for things to resolve with my neck. But I know it takes time when it gets like that. Lower body stretches followed. Dead hang was fine not as fatiguing for my forearms so I guess they are recovering as well. So like last week, a bunch of silly exercise that I’d have to do light that will make me look foolish. First up was IYTs. Same weight as plan as last week but now 12 reps for each variation. I knew these were going to be burners by the end of things. Feels very easy at the start but by the time I get to the T’s, feeling the burn. I definitely took a bit longer with my rests here compared to last week as those extra six reps per set were telling. My upper back was also quite sore. I wanted to make it through these without taking a break or setting the weights down. Successful on that front. The first of the two odd superset pairings followed. Seated pressing with tempo and the bent over tosses/chucks. 4x6 for both. I got the one medicine ball so that remained the same. Just be powerful with it. The pressing was what I could alter. I was advised to push the weight a bit more this time. I wasn’t sure how that would go as by the end of it was 4x5 from the weight I did last week, my triceps were really fatigued and my shoulders were screaming. Tempo reps with adding more reps feels like difficult increases exponentially rather than linearly. I wanted to go heavier but wasn’t sure of myself finishing things out with how I was feeling after the raises so I went for a tiny increase. No issues with the tosses, those feel great every time. Pressing that first set was ok and I figured I’d go up 2lbs and see. That felt easy enough that I worried I had miscounted a rep but still went up 2lbs after that. I decided to finally do the weight I was hoping I could do for sets next with a 3lbs jump and that seemed to work out for me. The alternating dumbbell row with chest support followed from there. Only thing was indicating 3x10 this week. So it looks like I was doing them right last week. Nothing was saying about increasing weight but I figured I would since it had been quite easy. I have time to mess around with setup so got the plateloadable handles setup for these. I was initially worried that I bit off too much here but these were quite comfortable and easy even with the increase in weight and reps here. Hmm, guess I’ll need to go heavier. The nasty part of the last week session was up next with another tempo pressing with a medicine ball slam exercise. There was some mercy given in that the reps for the pressing were lowered to 8 reps this week. But I was advised to go heavier. I didn’t feel like I could do 70’s for 3x8 with strict tempo adherence so that meant doing the plateloaded handles here. I was leery about that as don’t really want to use the 25’s as won’t be a “close grip” with the crush factor that way. Also issues with the spinning plates and handles causing issues with that as well. The side to side slams were increased to 6 reps here and that was fine. I think I only really had one where I got off balance (I was having that issue at the start of each set last week). I thought I had 50lbs but I miscalculated. And worse still was it felt too easy so I had to add weight each set like with the previous pressing. Which wasn’t as quick since these were my wrench locked collars for safety. Sets of 8 reps infinitely more tolerable to sets of 12 reps on tempo work like this. The last thing then was seated band pull aparts. 4x25 this week. I took a little longer rests than last week only because I felt this was when I could start prepping dinner and not worry I’d be away too long doing the exercise for some kitchen mishap. These were easy but I could tell a little more fatigue by the end with double the sets/volume. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.
Toes Elevated Dumbbell Romanian Deadlifts 70’sx12 70’sx12 70’sx12
Band Face Pulls/Heel Elevated Goblet Squats sbx15/bw+40x15 sbx15/bw+40x15 sbx15/bw+40x15
Stretching
Comments: I’ve not yet gotten an invite for Natural World’s but to be fair, it hasn’t been a week yet and I recall it took a bit for last year and I hadn’t been expecting one with how the placing went at that time. I do hope I get one but I’m not 100% sure with there being the four at the show and the one dropping. But we shall see. As for Strongman Corporation Nationals, I already got confirmation of invite for that. Events released and I do like that there are 7 events for the show but really only “excited” for like 2 of them. My dad finds them underwhelming and not great for me (squat, deadlift and two pressing events plus a “mystery event”). Will have to see what happens with Natural Strongman as far as invite and what the events will be as that will undoubtably be more expensive of the options here with doing a big show to end the competition season. But that is like 4 months away. But I do like thinking long term so that I can plan and not be needing to worry on the day to day. Because lord knows got enough of that with work and just the “vibe” in general of things right now everywhere. Anyways, temperature has cooled a little bit thankfully. Craving being able to work at home again where I can wear stuff that is much more comfortable with dealing with hotter temps. It is really shocking how the change from one work condition to the other has a quite drastic change in recovery. Went for a walk after work Thursday after letting it cool off a bit outside (I was also deciding if I should walk or not with recovery) and thankfully it is still light outside after work at this time. I had thought initially that my upper body was more wrecked than my lower body from the competition but that is patently not the case. I hardly feel anything from Day 1 session at this time. Still having some tension in the neck but it does seem to be slowly getting better and the soreness in my gums and ears is dissipating quickly (as I was expecting being back home). I decided for the Day 2 session that I was going to train after work Friday rather than make this a weekend workout. My thinking being that this is the light week coming back and may not be reflective of the next week or the following and this could be what is like the Day 1 and Day 2 for a three day workout week session. So maybe giving myself more rest before the next week starts and getting in more rest from sleeping in makes more sense. With no work the next day, I did take a little time to decompress from the day before getting training started. Soft tissue foam rolling starting things off and my calves needed a lot of it today. Right quad also did but not much for the left quad or hamstrings. Upper back needed it a good bit as well but perhaps not as much as first day back. Neck rehab stuff followed. Felt slightly better than it had two days prior. Nothing was feeling sore from that session despite all the tempo work. Lower body stretching and dead hang after that. Forearms still a bit sore. Then on to the workout. Still starting off with a deadlift but not axle deadlift like it has been for the past cycle. Indicated as doing trap bar deadlifts with a split stance. And doing 5 second eccentrics. Surprisingly, this isn’t an exercise I’ve not done before in some capacity. I’ve done these but with not as long an eccentric (3 seconds) and doing what is called a “b-stance” and them coming off as more rdl vs a true deadlift. Fitting into the trap bar (I do have a very large one) and such, it seemed like doing the variation I was doing would fit the bill albeit with the longer eccentric tempo. Notes were to do 3x6 and keep it light. I feel I kept it light but may have made it tougher than intended. I used no support gear and only aid was liquid chalk just for my hands with worries of sweat with the heat. I also flipped my trap bar upside down so that the ROM was greater and the pick height lower to start. I figured I could do a decent amount of weight here as when I last did these about a year ago, I had done 285lbs for a set of 10 reps each side (with rest between sides) with 3 seconds eccentric. Well it would seem that I’m rusty on these as 195lbs probably would’ve fit the bill here for the weight today. But I was stubborn and had figured on 265lbs but did lower it to 245lbs. These become quite taxing on the grip. The counting with tempo does lead to errors in rep count, especially with the top down rep approach and I ended up doing so on the first and last set here. I initially didn’t have any fans on but turned on the small oscillating fan to have better air flow. There weren’t as many exercises this session compared to Day 1 and moved on to the next thing. A superset of dumbbell high pulls and alternating reverse lunges. I asked for clarification on the style of high pulls. Lunges only bodyweight but it has been a good long while since I’ve had to do the alternating style and for higher reps. I realized after the first set that I was probably not going to be able to stomach and fluids for the remaining exercises if I wanted to get through them in a decent time. Due to the explosive nature of the high pulls and the number or reps, I felt it was best to do my 40lbs dumbbells here rather than my 70lbs, seeing as how stiff I seemed to move with those when doing clean and press. So these were quite easy. The lunges were not so. Knees were stiff and it took a bit to feel comfortable. Leaning forward quite a bit. I was definitely getting winded on these feeling a bit out of shape. However, I managed to move better and quicker as these went with getting through the actual reps in quicker time each set. This is the kind of reset I need after competitions to get feeling like an athlete again and moving well. When I feel like I’m moving well, I feel like I’m doing well. Another deadlift variation followed this. Been doing a lot of heel elevated stuff for squats but not any toe elevated but that was what was indicated for the rdls. I was going with my 70lbs dumbbells but after getting my ass handed to me by the lunges, I was wondering if that was too risky. Turns out this was really easy and I’d have needed more weight. But like I mentioned for the last session, trying to use what is easy at hand. I doubt I could load up the handles I got to have it feel worth my while honestly. But I can certainly try next time. I’ve been doing single leg versions with a decent amount of weight. Another superset to finish things off. Similar I guess to Day 1 with two superset pairings with similar things. That had been tempo press and ballistic slams and this was upper back pulls that are light/explosive with bodyweight high reps for legs. Band face pulls and heel elevated goblet squats. I usually have stuff from earlier in the session setup for anchors but not this time so a little rest to get that in place to start for the face pulls. I wasn’t sure if I could handle strong band right off the bat but I was good. I was surprised my right knee was achy on the goblet squats at the start as I felt like the lunges should’ve adequately prepared them. Like the previous superset, I got quicker on the leg stuff as I went and was getting a bit heavy breathing wise and lactic acid build up. But got through this one and able to put stuff away and eat dinner before stretching out.
Dumbbell Squeeze Bench Presses (4-0-4-0 tempo)/Med Ball Side to Side Slams 40’sx11 (miscounted) – 10x6/6 (miscounted) 40’sx14 (miscounted) – 10x5/5 40’sx12 – 10x5/5
Seated Band Pull Aparts mbx25 mbx25
Stretching
Comments: I was in a bit of rough shape after the competition with the travel still needed. I thought I got past whatever allergies issue had popped up the day before competition but that came back with a vengeance the next day. And not in the same way I was feeling it on the way out there. The neck tightness on the left side had popped back up again and I was having what felt like ear infections and my gums were sore. Been a while since I’ve had allergy and stress related stuff that bad pop up. It has also been like 8yrs since I last did a competition requiring driving into another time zone. I knew I’d eventually feel better once back home in familiar surroundings. We got back lunch time Monday and I did nothing Tuesday as I was feeling off. I was considering taking another day off work because this was still in office rotation and being home in comfortable climate and surroundings would probably be better and help me recover. The past two training cycles with Ms. Funk, I’ve taken off the week after the competition fully but that had more to do with not being home right away rather than lack of desire to train in some fashion. And the cycle before that under my own training I had gotten a cold upon return that kept me from training that week. So even though not feeling great, I did wish to do something this week rather than ruminate on the competition as I tend to focus on what was left on platform rather than what I did. So two workouts for this week to get moving and do a short off-season as I’m not sure exactly what I’m doing other than some big show hopefully end of August. These would be shorter workouts so that did lend to me being able to decompress from work for a bit before getting to training. Soft tissue work to start things off. Lower legs needed a decent amount and not much to really report on the hammies and quads. Upper back needed it a lot. I was expecting that with the neck tightness and just feeling from the show. Neck rehab was fine. Hip flexor is finally feeling well enough that I can do all the lower body stretching again. Dead hang was fine, could tell forearms were fatigued. Workout looked to be a lot of exercises that were going to make me look silly with light weight. Which is fine as I’m in need of a change of pace after one long prep going into a contest prep and one short contest prep back to back. What wasn't a fun start to this prep though is coming into first session with it being middle of April and 90 degrees already. So had all the fans going in the garage this session. First up was dumbbell raises of the IYT variety. Done these before in different styles. I just wasn’t sure how the neck/upper back would handle them as plan being them back to back so would be easy at the start (hopefully) and be quite a burner by the end. Thankfully no issues right off the bat and I was able to use my 10lbs dumbbells here. The pump and sensation of thickness in my upper back muscles doing these and after doing them had me feeling powerful. For whatever reason, when my upper back feels “thick” I feel confident and strong. From there moved on to an odd superset. The first part was strict press with barbell done seated. That’s not that odd but it was with long tempo work. Tempo on the concentric portion with lifts is what kills me with strength/weight wise on this kind of stuff. I initially was thinking higher weight but adjusted my expectations accordingly. I assumed my body would be plenty warmed up from the previous exercise. The other part of this was the unusual part in that I was to do medicine ball throws into the ground from a bent over row position. So tempo exercise followed by an explosive/ballistic exercise. I thought I had a medicine ball but I think I gave it away to my sister a few years ago. There were two planned exercises for this session requiring one and I wasn’t keen on the alternative exercises (just how they’ve felt in the past plus safety with setup reasons) so I did procure one. The throws weren’t as difficult or complicated as I was expecting and kind of active rest after the tempo pressing. The pressing I was getting quite fatigued from. A dumbbell row variation followed that. I’m assuming I did these right with the alternating style. Plan being 3x8 but I accidentally miscounted the first set. These were quite easy and I hadn’t wanted to load up the plateloadable dumbbells after seeing how these felt. This was a light and hopefully uncomplicated week. I’ll be back on telework rotation the next four weeks so I can fuck around then. Another of the odd supersets followed this. Again, pairing tempo pressing with a medicine ball exercise. This was the toughest part of the workout. The first half was a dumbbell bench variation with same tempo as the overhead pressing. But for 3x12 rather than 4x5. This felt like torture even with the weights this light. I ended up miscounting the reps on the first and second set. The other component was more med ball stuff but this was alternating slams from overhead. I was initially worried I’d need to do these outside but I had plenty of clearance and the med ball didn’t really bounce. These were easy like the other medicine ball exercise but I did have to chase down the darn thing at times. I miscounted the first set. Having survived that, the last thing was quite easy. Band pull aparts but seated version. This was done in short order. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching. Really dreading the DOMs from this one in the upper body.
Feels good to have a plan come together. Especially when it feels like a lot going on can’t be controlled right now. To borrow from Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, it’s good to have some islands in the stream. Even if temporarily. I survived the last adventure and having a pretty quick turnaround here. I guess strike while the iron is hot. I’d prefer more time but sometimes you got to accept that it won’t be all neat and tidy with a bow. New things to try and old things to keep working on. One of two preliminary competition plans for this season out of the way and looking to secure another notch on my proverbial and I guess literal belt so to speak. On to it.
Traveling has been a component with my strongman competitions since the beginning. My own anxiety had it be a deterrent until I did a local show and then I was hooked and willing to go places. Since 2008, I’ve competed in 16 different states within the US. And only flown to three of them. So a bit used to getting crammed in car with family to make a trip. And that was what was going to happen for this one being in the Midwest. El Paso Illinois isn’t really close to anything. Not that I live in some big city but about 3.5 times the population of where the contest was going to be. Closest airports would still be near 2hrs away driving. So might as well just drive all the way on the over 730 miles of road. This will be distant third place behind Shreveport (+1240) and Tunica (+960) as far as competition car rides.
And the why with picking this show came down to a few factors. I main one with short turnaround for this was some event carryover to the last one. It wasn’t like I was starting from zero on some things. Granted, my coach likes weekly frequency so it’s not like I’d be going into a show with no touches on stuff. At the time, options were southeast in a remote part of Florida (that got cancelled for low turnout) a week earlier and one in Canada that was about the same amount of travel but events were not great for me in middle of May. Feeling like maybe see if tensions lower and stick to something in the country for now. The west coast show ended up being earlier too (after being middle of May past two years) and that sold out real quick. I had not known at the time that an east coast show would be available in early June about 3hrs away. But this does seem like the best option for me and I can travel somewhere new.
My father and I got to leave earlier than planned initially on Thursday morning as my annual physical got rescheduled to the end of the month so this allowed for more driving to be done. About 8hrs first day and then 4hrs the second day being the plan both ways. It has been a while since this much driving was needed for a competition as the past three have relied on air travel for the most part. So there was also an effort to find stuff to do at the needed rest spots. One such spot was the Uranus Fudge Factory and General Store just over the border in Indiana from Ohio. I may be 40 but I’m still pretty darn childish in my humor. I think my father was even more invested in stopping there than myself. The rest of the trip was a lot of flat, open spaces. I recall a joke about how you could watch your dog run away from home for three days straight.
Living in Pennsylvania most of my life, I thought I knew was bad roads were. We were not prepared for the roads in Illinois I can tell you that much. And those were the ones you could drive on as there were a ton of road closures in cities that the GPS apps weren’t even aware of. Could swear we’d be in some place and the road closure signs would just be moved around. Getting to the venue the day before made the most sense to check in and figure things out, especially since the contest got moved from the local rec center to the promoter’s gym. Ended up on some country back roads to get there when probably could’ve just been on the main roads. The promoter was there to check me and had his very young son with him. It was a small gym but had the necessities and an outdoor space. The equipment was going to be all from his stuff there.
I’ve done over 50 competitions and I still get nervous. I think I was glad I was nervous the night before and thinking about the events in my head. Means I still care about what I’m doing and that I wasn’t feeling mentally burned out. I had some worries as my neck got stiff Monday morning and it is still taking its sweet time getting not that way and then allergies got really bad driving through Indiana that I had to get some Dayquil from a truck stop. And that hip flexor issue that popped up a few weeks back. But in the moment, those all seemed to not be an issue upon waking Saturday morning and just needed to get myself moving and the nerves out.
The venue and competition had an “intimate” feel to it with being in such a small town with local people and competitor’s family members present. Only 17 people total for the show so unless things were run horridly, this could move at a fast clip. Initially, there were 6 people in my weight class and then it dropped to 5 people. Day of the show only 4 people showed up. The bare minimum to allow for top 2 to be invited. I only really knew about one person that I competed against at World’s last year and place ahead by one point in the totals purely on me getting second on the Hercules hold there as otherwise he beat me on every event head to head besides that one. He was going to be my toughest known competition as I didn’t know much of anything about the other two there.
First event was the press event. This feels like the standard order of operations when it comes to strongman shows. Circus dumbbell with 160lbs/72.5kgs in 60 seconds. At least that was what was indicated but with the setup of things, it was closer to 165lbs/75kgs for the weight. This is fairly light overhead event considering things but still not nothing. 15lbs/7kgs heavier than what I did for Arizona. I was initially a little worried I’d not feel great right after competing to go into this event again but it fit like a glove that first session back. A little different with training in that doing some intensity alternating with EMOM and pauses and a lot of stability and triceps focus on accessory stuff. Deload was earlier I had suggested a greater drop in intensity for the last session. With how things were running, I was going second all day with the guy I expected to be the person to beat ahead of me. There is not a lot of standardization in strongman and there tends to be less when it comes to stuff like circus dumbbells. I’m not sure what brand this is or if it was a local wielding job. Handle was substantially thicker than what I was training on and had an odd grip texture to it. And the securing of weights wasn’t inspiring confidence (especially after having them come off in warm ups). I’d need to play by ear here. I did get in the warm ups that I wanted and there was thankfully a spare dumbbell to the side that I kept empty and did some singles to keep primed waiting to go. The number to beat was 5 reps. Not sure what was coming behind me but I knew that likely a single rep would be good here. But that is how losers think. The first rep I could tell that waiting and last touch that was heavy being 20lbs under was a bit rough but I recovered from the initial shock with it racked and got the rep. It wasn’t the cleanest and I knew it wasn’t probably wise to try and touch and go this with the weights moving around. The guy ahead didn’t have the fastest technique so I could pace myself here to potentially tie or beat that. Second rep took a bit to settle in the rack but the power in the drive it flew up much better. Third rep was even better and I was on pace for 6 reps here. Or so I thought. The weights were really shaking around in the dumbbell when I went for the fourth rep and I couldn’t get it up there. I decided to set it back down rather than try to force it in the rack for another attempt and just use the clock to give one more solid effort for a fourth rep. I timed it out perfectly and got that last rep. This can be a crap shoot with different setup but this was a good result. The other two athletes bombed the event so this was good for second place.
Second event was deadlift. Like I said, feels standard order. Axle deadlifts from 13” from using the in-vogue wagon wheels. 535lbs/242.5kgs with no suits in 60 seconds as well as up and down commands. I was feeling good after the dumbbell, getting those first event jitters out of the way and having it go well. Deadlift is generally not my strong suit so to speak and this is relatively light considering things. Still has going to be challenging for me and kind of knew this wasn’t an event I’d win. An elevated pull was likely going to be a little more forgiving for me having just done a long cycle with a bendy bar and then a suit. This continues to need work. Pretty much same as last prep with heavy and volume days alternated. Lots of lower back and hamstring work as well. I pushed myself and surprised myself with some of the sessions in the later half of this prep. Perhaps not in weight but in repeatability of near max effort weights. Pulled back on these early too like overhead. Again, I got in the warm ups that I wanted here which is a big win when it comes to shows. Warm ups may not be ideal with number of athletes and pace of things but if I can get in those bare minimums that will make me feel like I did what I need to feel up to the task or at least “ready” for what’s to come, that is enough for me. The wheels we ended up using were the harder rubber ones from Rogue Fitness. I like these if only because they don’t sound as “harsh” to my ears as the metal ones I have and banging on the concrete floor of my garage. One of the other athletes dropped out of the competition at this point as they felt a “pop” in their back during warm ups. So we were done to three but scoring off of four since that is what we started with. I knew the guy before me was going to win this event as he was definitely good for double digits at this weight. The guy on my heels I felt like was probably about where I was or a little above me actually. So aim was to just not miss a rep and use the time to get reps. My last warm up had felt heavy but I know that with this one that I can still get reps if it feels heavy for me. Time starts and so do I. Feels heavy but it goes up. Feeling a bit of pressure on my body, perhaps I’m still having some congestion from allergies. In either case, I decide it is best to relax my brace and get a breath each pull and space out the minute here. I don’t want to pass out either. Much like circus dumbbell, I get three reps in the first 30 seconds. Number four I get the stanky legs going so I know that I need to regroup for another rep here. I undo my straps so I can stand up fully. I didn’t mean to cut this one so close but my fingers were fumbling with my straps to get reattached to the bar. Five reps done (I’d had done 2 reps in training at most). The guy after me managed to get 7 reps (one sketchy rep) so I ended up with a third place here.
Third event of the day was sandbag to shoulder. A max event but setup a little differently. Usually those kinds of events are like rising bar or you get three attempts. With this arrangement, all the bags would be set out and you had 90 seconds to achieve you best lift. If people tied on weight, it would be decided then by time it took to hit said weight. So some gamesmanship here. Training for this initially didn’t go well. Technique for one bag might not work on another so I was anticipating my usual style not being a valid option going really heavy if the bags got longer. That led to a frustrating session when I struggled with a weight I’ve done easily. It got in my head and ended up taking a nap and bailing on the rest of the session and worried that I was not recovering well. Reverting back to my usual style showed me that I had only slightly lost a step but otherwise I was good and on point. But greater focus on deadlift did seem to sap me on these and I didn’t seem to be able to match the feeling of ease/success I did for that one session that got me feeling like myself. I also got a bit of hip flexor issue that flared up a few weeks out from the show and this movement seemed to affect it quite a bit so shut this down earlier in prep. For the best. I was feeling good going into this from the previous events and I had a little buffer on third place. But I guess I wasn’t quite feeling myself as bags were feeling rough. I guess the deadlifting took a bit out of my posterior chain. There was a wide variety of bags and different brands and fills. My hope had been leading up to this that I hopefully hit something close to 300lbs/136kgs and then take a shot at 350lbs/159kgs (assuming that was different sized bag). What I was realistically looking at here for viable options to really have any points was 275lbs/125kgs (Rogue Fitness), 310lbs/141kgs (Valkyrie Strength), 340lbs/154kgs (Cerberus Strength) and 365lbs/165.5kgs (Valkyrie Strength). The 340lbs/154kgs bag was the oversized bag style. 310lbs/141kgs went into my lap well enough warming up but the fabric just felt too slick to me with my style of shouldering that I felt like I’d waste effort going for it and it was too risky for me to open with. I could see the guy behind me aiming to open at that bag weight and the guy ahead did the 340lbs/154kgs bag quite easy warming up and stating he’d open there. Unless he screwed up, first wasn’t happening. And he didn’t. He got that bag easy and had a close miss with the smaller 365lbs. My strategy here was to get on the board with 275lbs/125kgs and then go for hail Mary on the 340lbs/154kgs bag. It wouldn’t make sense to try 310lbs after as there would be the time factor and it was unlikely I’d get that bag done inside the time that the guy following me up would get that in going for it first. So my opening lift did at least move better than my warming up did and then I went at the 340lbs/154kgs bag. I picked it up vertical style and bear hugged it and messed around with in the lap to try and get it into position. I stood up with it but I was just not going to get it up to shoulder this way. I really need to spend more sessions with this kind of sized bag if I want to make this work. The guy after me was successful after a struggle with his bag. So a bit surprising third place here.
The guy in first had won the first three events and my 3-point lead on the guy in third had now shrunk to 1 point. The remaining events were better for me and perhaps I could get an even win or two to increase the buffer. Unless the guy in first zeroed one of the next two events (which would be impossible barring injury) I was going to have to settle for second place at best. Which would satisfy the overall goal to qualify for Natural Worlds and keep my options open for the end of the summer. But I was certainly starting to sweat things after the sandbag to shoulder didn’t work out in my favor. The rest of the show was to take place outside so the small collection of people moved accordingly. It was nice out (I had been going outside at times to cool off from being in the gym) and I was thankful I did bring my sunglasses as it was one of the few times out there it wasn’t overcast.
The fourth event involved sandbags as well. Sandbag carry can be contested a few ways. This would be carrying 300lbs/136kgs down 60’/18.3m and back in 60 seconds time limit. Drops allowed but I know if I dropped, that I’d likely be done as pick up is the hardest part for me with most things in this sport. I can hold and carry things for a long time. Not necessarily a fast time. Just got to get used to it and try to move fast. I tend to move about the same speed unfortunately. I knew that my posterior chain was likely beat seeing how sandbag to shoulder went after deadlift. There is always asterisk next to weights and distances in strongman. I brought my measure wheel just in case after I saw that one of the events was changing up the week prior due to location change. I like to have numbers for what I did to accurately review performances. In this instance, the sandbag was 310lbs/141kgs and the distance 55’/16.75m down and back. My right hip flexor was a little tight but not as bad as it has been. Trying to move a bit and get a feel for things. I attempted to pick up the contest bag after doing lighter runs with 200lbs/91kgs and 250lbs/113kgs and I wasn’t successful in lapping it. I hadn’t given it 100% (it’s warming up) but it did have me starting to stress things. I really don’t like this 310lbs/141kgs sandbag today. I knew I could do it but I’d really need to hunker down when it was time to go and commit and grind out the lift. I think I was surprised with just how fatigued my posterior chain was, considering the work put in on it this short prep. Guy in first went pretty quick with it. My pick up was slow but successful. I was not vibing with the texture or tactile feel of this bag at all. Focusing on my breathing and trying to move fast. Tried to pick up speed on the return trip after kind of reverting to the short steps to make the turn and go. Finished in 21.03 seconds, which is about what I was hitting in training with the 300lbs/136kgs bag with slightly longer distance but a lot less fatigue from preceding stuff. Left wrist was sore immediately afterwards but that abated. I should be ok for the last event to finish out the day. About 3.5 seconds slower than first but 12.5 seconds faster than third for second place.
The fifth and final event for the contest was a bit unusual. Arm over arm but standing. So needing to anchor self with bodyweight and pull the implement in the 60 seconds time limit. This one had been a bit of question mark leading up to things. I trained this as best I could using what I had and kind of hoped it was tough enough training. As this kind of event can be a bit of a crapshoot. Won’t know what you’re in for until that first tug. This was initially going to be sled with weight I believe for 50’/15.25m-60’/18.3m but that had been when this was going to be at the rec center. Now it was going to be a vehicle pull allegedly for 80’/24.4m. Which was fine since I was training the longer end of the distance on high friction surface and a thick rope. I had a feeling it might become a “drag race” so I did end up doing some sessions lighter weight and speedy. I had some doubts on the distance and measured it and it was closer to 45’/13.7m. It was also quite a thin rope. This was the only event that we as athletes didn’t get to do anything to warm up on. Only slightly miffed about that as initially indicated that we would get a chance due to change in the setup and how thin the rope was. But it be like that sometimes. There were kegs loaded into for the women’s classes and then about 950lbs/431kgs of sandbags were added to the truck as well for the men’s classes. I heard roughly 1500lbs/680kgs total added on top of the hefty pick up truck. This should be a good event for me but sometimes I get lost in the weeds and don’t just do the thing. I watched people go and everyone was finishing this thing across the classes. Longest time being just under 39 seconds by one of the competitors in the junior class. Some people were really good at getting a firm, braced stance and undulating to get the vehicle moving fast. Other’s I saw slipping with poor foot wear choice. There was about 10’/3m of space we had to work with and stepping out of bounds would result in a 2 second penalty. My thinking was that I’d get a firm grip of the rope and then walk backwards a few feet to break the momentum and then brace and pull from there. It was kind of hard to tell how fast people were really pulling. I got set with my strategy in place and put it into action. Took a bit to get the inertia to break but once I started pulling, it was moving fast and easy. Time read as 19.65 seconds and I raised up my hands thinking that I had to have won it. Turns out I didn’t. I apparently took too long to get it started as first place was just under a second faster. And second place had not been a sure thing as third place was only about half a second slower. But still a second place finish.
So things ended up being closer than I’d like in the end here (and not how I was expecting). First place had a clean sweep and put on a clinic with deadlift and sandbag to shoulder. Third place will be dangerous in the future if he keeps at this as only his overhead let him down today really. He also competing like two weeks prior to this as well. He was local while first place was coming from Minnesota. But I like competing with others and myself. The myself happens with every training session and competition. But others is a rare thing only with competition where we are going head to head on the same day and time. I did not get selected for the urine sample this time around so only five events for me today. Things got finished up by about 1:00PM (started at 9:00AM) so I had about half a day to do stuff and decompress. I working on the assumption that I’ve qualified since I placed second with a competition starting with four competitors. So two for two on the competition season goals for the first half of the year. I’m undecided on whether going to compete at Nationals for Strongman Corporation (Texas) or Natural Strongman World’s (Scotland) as both are within a week of each other at the end of August. Wait and see what the events end up being. Or see what else pops up. For now, going to recover from the traveling and competing and do a short little off season recovery prep.
Paused Lying Band Leg Curls/Paused Band Seated Leg Extensions (2)mbx15/abx15 (2)mbx15/abx15
Walking 19 minutes
Stretching
Comments: Work wasn’t as rough as Monday but it was still trying. It is possible that I’m feeling irritated with things due to the competition coming up. Usually there is some decrease in the intake part of things with time off as I won’t be here and shit won’t be getting done while I’m out and then having to do that when I get back and catch up while already having things scheduled. I could tell I was stressed yesterday as stuff was sounding louder than it usually does. Similar today but I was handling it better. Neck seemed less stiff but I guess that was a psych out as it is now localized to the left side and it feels somewhat like I tweaked it now. No clue what this is about. But I’ve been here before and I’ve managed. Soft tissue foam rolling to start things off. Right quad needing it a lot again. Other stuff about the usual. Neck rehab stuff followed. Not sure if this helped or aggravated my neck. Hard to say as some stuff I was feeling really good with but some stuff (like chest doorway stretch) was also feeling tense in the neck. Oh well. Lower body stretching and dead hang after that. Kind of seeing if anything maybe gets the neck to just “click” and feel better. Probably not but staying positive. Then on to the workout. Axle deadlift with the wagon wheels. Notes were to keep this light and suggested was 325-345lbs for 3x4. This was only thing I was leery about. Not because this could hurt (I’ve done deadlift with the tense neck no problem) but wanting to make sure I don’t take anything away from what I need for the show on deadlift. Worrying that I won’t be peaked like I want to be here. If something felt off, I’d call it. But hopefully not as even calling it might have me doubting myself. I did 40-50lbs jumps and this was feeling pretty good and easy. I went with 30lbs jump for the last one just to hit the minimum. These felt comfortable and easy. No hard belt and took short rests like yesterday (under a minute). So this was a good sign. Tear down and setup took a little longer this session vs yesterday with the equipment. Next was Pendlay rows. Just 135lbs here for 2x5. Only thing that could be an issue is if pulling while bent over (bent over seems to put most stress on the neck I noticed) would irritate my neck. It did not. This was piss easy. Like not even a warm up. Felt like I could do 50 reps here. The last weight related thing was the same superset I did last week on Day 2. Banded lying leg curls and banded seated leg extensions for 2x15 with pauses at peak contraction and controlled movement. I was initially going to use same band tension as last week but figured it was probably best to use less so that I wasn’t rushing the movement and insure quality of the movements as well while not stressing about it. No rest between sets and exercises but that still took me about 40 seconds to switch with getting out of one setup and getting the other ready. Walking afterwards as part of the deload. I took a different route and that ended up being within the 15-20 minutes range this time. Nice to walk some areas in the neighborhood I don’t usually go. The workouts are done, just got to make it through another day of work, drive across five states and put it out there once again.
Seated Dumbbell Overhead Presses (3 second eccentrics) 40’sx5 40’sx5 40’sx5
Heel Elevated Goblet Squats bw+40x10 bw+40x10
Close Grip Push Ups/Band Pull Aparts bwx10/mbx15 bwx10/mbx15
Walking 23 minutes
Stretching
Comments: The week of, trying to decompress and at the same time not become so detrained by movement. I will be in a car for a day and a half and different hotels each way out there and back. Easter with family was nice. Trying to distract myself with planning out meals during the trip. Bodyweight same as last week. Work just fucking dragged on as half the people in the unit were there and that meant getting more work on top of the many things I scheduled to try and get done before I’m out. I need to get stuff resolved this week that can as I’m not going to recall shit the following week with competition and travel. Neck feeling tense today. Not like how it does when I tweak something randomly. Just tense. Plan is just two workouts for this week. I’m thankful that the hip issue is nearly gone at this point. Right on time. Soft tissue stuff with foam rolling. Didn’t really need much besides tops of my right calf and my upper back. Neck rehab stuff felt fine. Some stuff felt like more effort than usual, but assuming that has to do with my neck feeling tense. Lower body stretching and then a dead hang. Then on to the very quick training session. Starting off the lifting with the same seated presses with somewhat short rests and 3 second eccentrics. This time just 3x5. Light and explosive. I had definitely undershot these last week so I knew that my 40’s would fit the bill here. Didn’t need any warming up sets. Just get in and get out time thing here. This did feel like some effort but easy. From there into goblet squats. Notes being “light AF” for 2 sets of 8-10 reps. Heels elevated as well but no tempo stuff. Seeing as how I did 106lbs for sets with pauses no issues Saturday, I figured just using the 40lbs dumbbell here would fit the bill. I kind of gifted some lighter stuff to my sister. Knees a little achy but not as bad coming into it Saturday. Still felt like things moved well. I kept these similar rest to the pressing. Squats are a little more taxing compared to pressing as even when bodyweight, it is a lot of range of motion. Last lifting related thing was a superset of push ups and band pull aparts. Similar to last week but just bodyweight on the push ups (no tempo or bands). I did my best to make these look robotic in motion and to keep myself braced. Make it look good and like it was no effort at the same time. Do it all day. Band pull aparts didn’t feel as taxing this week. Perhaps because didn’t do so much before hand and less intense push up variation. I made sure I took a slight break between the sets. And as usually is the case on the deload week, some walking after the session. Was to be 15-20 minutes but the route a picked ended up taking longer to complete than I thought. I was worried about undershooting here. Got dinner ready and then stretched. One more to go.
Comments: Been so busy with work that I’ve been pretty distracted from even thinking about the upcoming competition with only the occasional aches and such from my right hip flexor area really having me notice that. It has been good that the workouts this week haven’t been too taxing so I can just get in and get out. I think the only thing that really required any prep work had been just the logistics with the banded exercises on Wednesday. Weekend sessions I can have a bit more time to mess around and play around. Usually that is the case. So distracted with work stuff that keep forgetting that it is a holiday weekend. No walking Thursday more to try and get some rest and just do soft tissue work and walked Friday after work since no immediate rush to get up early. I was hoping to get up early but felt myself taking too long to get ready for bed that I decided I’d not set and alarm and see how I feel. This is the longer session to do with setup and there was an expectation to be back and ready for family stuff at a certain time. But I felt that was going to be fine. I couldn’t be out there too early for it to really matter since the stuff needing longer setup would be in the wind tunnel area and there is that youth football group that is often there for hours until noon. I wasn’t sure if they’d be there Easter weekend but they were. I had delayed putting gas in the car just seeing if anything changed. It didn’t so just half a tank to make it through today and the rest of the week up until I head out. Not many people here but still some of the dedicated. Besides all the children. Surprisingly, my quads didn’t need a ton to warm up today with foam rolling. My calves did which is more what I expect. So maybe the hip thing is healing up. Neck rehab stuff was fine, didn’t feel as tense as earlier in the week had. Still doing a modification on the lower body stretches at this time to avoid the hip flexor issue. Dead hang felt nice and relaxing. During my warming up I was advised family stuff was going to start an hour earlier that I was told so that unfortunately now added a time crunch to what I was doing. On to squats to start things off like usual. But unlike usual, this wasn’t the box squats with eccentric emphasis that I’ve been doing. Notes were to work up to 3x6 at RPE 8 on heel elevated goblet squats with 3 second pauses. And being explosive on the way up. I wasn’t sure how things would feel and generally it is higher reps on these. I find the upper body tends to be the limiting factor. I stubbornly wanted to use kettlebells here. Kettlebells just seem to feel better for me wrist wise even though dumbbell I can brace my body against it better. Not to my advantage as the kettlebells only go up to 32kgs whereas the dumbbells I believe I could’ve gone up to 130lbs with solid dumbbells. I figured I’d nerf myself on these by wearing no support gear so that hopefully I could find an effort range with what was available. Knees were achy at the start and I took 8kgs jumps (since that was the jumps in the kettlebells) and I was unfortunately finding these too easy. I ran out of kettlebell weight so I took two 24kgs bells and had them more of a front squat hold style but purposely having them out front more to have it be like the goblet squat. This finally got them to feel somewhat tough. Getting the kettlebells up was actually the trickier thing here. I guess going forward if these come up like this, I should use the solid dumbbells. Moved on from there to the event work, starting with circus dumbbell. I was somewhat tempted to do no equipment for the session after the squats but thought better on it that I should make sure these events are performed with how I will be equipped at the show for these last touches. The initial plan had been to do contest weight for 4-5x2 with 60-90 seconds rest. Despite how well contest weight had been moving the past two weeks, I suggested that I use a lot less weight here. Just past history in that I’ve seemed to really be dragging ass the week before competition that past two preps with both times having me bail on the sessions feeling frustrated and tired. I had indicated that end of last prep I didn’t feel like I had peaked/recovered deadlift and overhead like the other events that were pulled back earlier (or I didn’t do). Last prep I did contest weight for a contest set and that had not gone well and I matched that at contest. So hope here was doing 140lbs would feel crisp and I’d not be worried about not being recovered and super-compensating at the show. I was not feeling my best going into these. My knees were feeling quite achy just at the start with the lightest weight which hasn’t been the case in a while. Perhaps no knee sleeves on the squats contributed to that. Also a larger ROM. Didn’t feel as stable in the rack position. Could be from the goblet squats putting more stress on the shoulders/upper back. Working weight just felt ok. Of the things I did today, this put the most strain on the hip flexor area. It was good that I didn’t do or try for contest weight this week as that would’ve stressed me out with the effort needed. From there on to training on the turf. Next thing being sandbag carries. Plan was to do 250lbs for 4x60’ and working on speed. Specifically, Ms. Funk wanted me to work on aggression with the pick and use my bodyweight to move the bag into position. This prep I’ve been really setting the pick and grip for the sandbag carries. I’m not sure if we will be allowed to do this at the show or if hands off and run or such. But I’ve been treating the picks for sandbag to shoulder like that and doing these this way just so I’m covering my bases. Also because I’m worried about straining biceps doing that much aggressive style picks week to week. But the snag here was that apparently the 250lbs was not to be used. I had wrapped it in athletic tape when I started using it since there was a puncture in it. The tape was gone and I’m not sure if there was another puncture but it was in pile with two other sandbags with a sign saying “do not use”. So I ended up using the 225lbs bag. I don’t like the bags with straps on them. I biffed the pick up on the first one as I got ahead of myself and went with it in a lower carry position then what I’ve been training for. I did correct that on the subsequent runs. My right biceps felt a little tight after the third run but no issues on the last one. Arm over arm next. Just two sets again with 10lbs more than last time with indication on speed. I had learned about the bodyweight distribution last time so I had some idea of that. The bigger issue was getting sure footing as whatever I had been using the first few weeks was no longer viable due to issues with the turf meeting the rubber flooring. So I tried moving over to the right further to see if that was a bit better footing wise. I was still having issues with that on the first set and that ended up being a decent energy drain on me. I took a bit of rest to recover and the second set was much better with figuring out right from the start what the best footing to have and it showed in the about 10 seconds faster time. Still not perfect here. Going forward if I have this event again, it may behoove me to switch around where I’m pulling from for more consistent footing. But this is only the second time this has come up in a show with doing this sport. Finishing up with the gym stuff. Reverse hypers again with tempo. Same weight and tempo as last week but now for 2x15. The extra reps were taxing but overall I felt I was better prepared for this as the holds didn’t feel as jarring. Then last thing being pulldowns. No drop sets, but tempo added like on the reverse hypers. 2 sets with aim being RPE 8 with 10 reps. I wasn’t sure how light or heavy as pauses can really add up on higher rep sets. I took a guess at 140lbs and that was about right but it felt just a little to easy so added 10lbs for the second set and that was right on the money. I didn’t bring as much food for after training as family having a much earlier dinner than I usually have on the weekends so just a sandwich for post workout. Put stuff away and drove home to clean up (not going to be enough time to stretch) before heading over to visit family. Stretched when I got home in the evening. I’ve essentially survived another prep. Just got to decompress and make it to the venue in one piece.
Paused Lying Band Leg Curls /Paused Band Seated Leg Extensions (2)mmbx5/sbx5 (2)mmbx15/sbx15 (2)mmbx15/sbx15
Stretching
Comments: No walking Tuesday as playing some catch up on sleep and also cashing in a gift card for dinner. Also my hip thing was acting up Tuesday so I didn’t want to bother it. I was very shocked with how well it was feeling right before going to bed Tuesday and then waking up Wednesday. Kind of a knock on wood that it stays like this or gets better from here. Work was damn busy as well. Hoping that my energy levels didn’t tank. Especially since it was 80 degrees again. I preemptively put on the small oscillating fan in the garage for some air flow. Soft tissue foam rolling surprisingly not much was needed elsewhere but really needed it for my right quad. A little more for the calves compared to Monday though. Neck rehab stuff followed. Chest needed this. My right arm (biceps) was feeling tense for some reason. Lower body stretching and dead hang after that. Didn’t have the weird “disconnect” issue like I had last time. Then on to the workout. Axle deadlift with the wagon wheels. Essentially the same workout as last week minus working up to a heavy double/single. Just doing the 405lbs for doubles but EMOM rest this time and two extra ones. Make these speedy. I knew that could be a tall order to make them feel speed but they should move fast. I tend to feel like stuff moves fast and feels light if it is after doing something darn heavy. Like last week. I took plate jumps just because I worry that I’ll have limited warming up at the show. Not received any e-mail updates or nothing the entire time. So yeah, 90lbs jumps are rough but I’ve done them before with warming up and for similar things. These felt heavy and straining but I know they weren’t. It wasn’t until the last three or so that the weight actually started to feel light. I’m glad this wasn’t a heavy session so I can recover and not feel like grinding things down to a nub so close to show time. Similar to day one, there were modifications to this day with the hip. Ms. Funk took out sandbag to shoulder stuff due to how that felt and it would likely get in my head to do it this week. I’m going to be doing sandbag stuff on Saturday anyways. So the change was bent over dead stop rows or Pendlay rows. I was somewhat tempted to still use a sandbag instead but thought better of it as Ms. Funk put barbell rows for a reason. Plan being strict and on these with 3x6-8 and RPE 7. I made a point to wear what I’ll wear for my midsection doing sandbag stuff. I overestimated what I could do here as my first “working” set was sloppy. I should’ve taken how 225lbs had felt warming up to have that be my working weight. I dropped the weight down to 225lbs for much better quality reps. Just moving on along here. There was a change with the ssb gms. Still doing dead stop style starting from the top but adding in 1.5 reps. So down and then up halfway, back down and the up all the way. So even the “5” rep set was going to feel like a lot. I misloaded these at the start as I was planning to use the same weight as last week. I didn’t notice until I was at the working sets so I added 5lbs to be in the suggested weight range. These were tougher than last week but felt better on my body if that made sense. This workout initially had these followed up with the sandbag zercher lunges with tempo pauses as I guess I hadn’t made it clear that these were potentially the cause of the hip flexor issue and that these were causing some anxiety. So they were dropped and I was advised to some wall sit variations instead. I figured that I’d do the one that had the least amount of moving around. Knees were pretty achy in the position and it has been over half a year since I’ve done any wall sits so legs were a bit detrained to this. Bodyweight only here and a minute was challenging. Essentially I did a set and then took about 90 seconds and then did the next set. Knees felt better as I did these but they did get tougher. A superset to end the night. Not having all the heavy stuff was moving things along at a decent clip. I had to do some logistics here with the last thing as it was banded lying leg curls and banded seated leg extensions. I’ve done them but not together. Had to do some testing to figure out how to setup both and make it work. I did find a way that was pretty quick. My testing set had the band tensions I picked feel quite challenging but they weren’t so bad during the actual sets. These actually felt pretty good on my joints and muscles at the end of the session. Did these back to back with rest being however long it took to get into one contraption and out of the other. Put stuff away and got to eating dinner before stretching.
Comments: The last true week of training before a competition. Really does come up too quickly. At first I feel like it is far away and then doing the events so many times but then get closer and there is a mixture of anxiousness and also wanting to be done with it so I can do other stuff. Still dealing with whatever is going on with the right hip flexor. I think it is getting better with reduction in training load, resting and not aggressively stretching. Weight was down about 3lbs from last week. No really rhyme or reason but could be just I get stressed as I get closer to competition. It is good the week before to have things pulled back so that I’m not stressing over everything and can focus my nervous energy on work. Not be chasing two rabbits when there is just one day where the stress needs to be there. I did go for a walk on Sunday to see if walking did help with blood flow since I didn’t really get any chance to walk last week really. The hip issues is there but besides that, my upper back and shoulders did feel a bit tense after training Saturday. Soft tissue work to start off the day. Pretty much a constant these past 2-3 weeks with the right quad needing it the most. My lower back is feeling a little looser so maybe that will ease pressure elsewhere. Neck rehab stuff felt fine. Lower body stretching still modified in not doing stuff that was stressing my hip flexors. Felt a little off after stretching so that wasn’t ideal. Dead hang felt fine. Some things changed with the session from last week to hopefully let my hips recover more for the show. So instead of the usual tempo dumbbell push pressing I was to do tempo seated pressing. Plan being 3 seconds eccentrics with 3x8 for 60-90 seconds rest. I wasn’t too sure how intense these should be. I figured solid dumbbells would be quicker. I was hoping that short rests with the reps and eccentrics would have the 40’s feel like it was tough enough but I undershot the effort range here. Shoulders did feel a bit achy/tense. I don’t think I’d been able to keep 70’s here with as short a rest as I did but I definitely could’ve gone heavier here for the planned effort range. But it was a nice start to the session. My shoulders had felt really achy the last time I did seated presses as part of an emergency deload week session. Seated also let me stick to the garage for the day. Axle floor pressing again with the paused lockouts. 3x4 again but with 20lbs less than last time I did them. Which shouldn’t be an issue with how these have felt the past three weeks. Weight was feeling a little heavy on my wrists but this was moving well. I noticed after the first set that I was bleeding from my one finger. I apparently cut it on a jagged shard of metal on my cheap plateloadable dumbbell handles while setting stuff up. It was a thin slice in my finger and no further issues after that. This pressing felt fine. I do hope that I can be more consistent with this kind of pressing after this competition. Supersets to start the second half. Slight changes to both. With the first one chest flyes with internal rotation and single arm triceps. The flyes were adjusted to indicate lower reps (6-8) and doing 3 second holds at lockout (when dumbbells together). I wasn’t sure how that would feel. Plan was initially to do 25-30lbs here. That would require the plateloaded handles. I got a little finicky with the weight distribution having it be the same for both the flyes and triceps extensions. Then wondering with the dumbbells how they’d work with the hold with the longer handles. I then decided I’d just not bother with the them and use the 40lbs dumbbells instead after I had cut my finger on the plateloaded ones. I was very suprised when I lay on the bench to start that my right hip flexor flared up something fierce. It didn't do that last week. So that was a bit unexpected and unpleasant. Especially since trying to avoid the usual suspects. But whatever. Can grin and bear it going forward. It wasn't a shock with working weights. This was fine on the flyes as far as weight went. I wasn’t feeling aches in the chest like last two weeks. But it was a mighty ask for my triceps upping the weight so much with the pauses. I stuck with the pauses but I know the form wasn’t as solid as it was with lighter weight. Cut the difference between under effort for the seated presses and over effort for the extensions. Last pairing session also a slight change. Still banded push ups but now pauses at both the top and bottom of the movement. Indication was to do 2x10 here. This worked out with the band tension from last time. The pauses at both spots was tougher but helped with not being confused what I was doing during the movement. The other part of this was band pull aparts. I do a variation with a theraband and underhand grip for my neck rehab so I’m familiar with these. Just been a bit since I’ve done them. 2x10-20 but I knew I was doing 20 reps here. These were feeling a deep burn in my shoulders/upper back. It has been a while since I’ve done this version and I guess there was fatigue from the push ups as well having tempo. But it was a pleasant burn effort. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.
Comments: With only having one day of rest before this session, I wasn’t going to be pushing myself to get up at a set time. Also with the hip flexor thing being a bit irritated as well. Not as bad as it was going into training last week where the anxiety had me paralyzed. I knew what this was and what I could do with it so perhaps that helped some. No walking after work Friday, I had too much that needed to be done that kind of piled up during the week and I wanted to give the hip a rest as not sure if walking was helping or not. I did have plans with training in regards to the hip. I slept in about an hour from my usual worktime when I’m offsite and I felt decently rested. I still had things I needed to do before getting ready to train so it was a bit later when I finally was on the road to train. Driving out wasn’t smooth at the start. Lot of people out driving and not driving well at least locally. I did see as I got closer to the gym that the way back was blocked up with dumb construction so I made a mental note to find an alternate route if that was still happening hours later when I would finally leave. I was kind of surprised there were people there when I got there and there for most of my session really. As has been the case with the foam rolling, only my right quad really needed it and needed it a lot. Not to say other stuff didn’t have some soreness that benefited from foam rolling. But it was quite one-sided on what needed it. Neck rehab stuff was fine. I modified the lower body stretching to not stretch out my hip flexors aggressively like I tend to do. See if that helps any. Dead hang felt nice. As has been the case this prep, starting things off with eccentric focus box squats. Suggested was 10-20lbs more than last week for 3x2. Since I’ve been on a kilo plate kick with these, I went with 140kgs vs 130kgs from last week and the week before. Knees were not feeling as good as last week on these. This could be from not walking the day before or having on less day rest or not doing all the stretches or not taking ibuprofen the night before. I also lent my one hard belt to a friend’s daughter doing a powerlifting meet (her first one) in two weeks time so I wasn’t using my usual hard belt here. Despite all that, camera says these moved fine if they didn’t feel super amazing. They did feel better as I went as well. From there it was on to circus dumbbell. These had been anxiety inducing last week but had gone a ton better than expected. The plan for this week was to work up to contest weight for 6-10 singles done EMOM style with judging on when to stop being if they feel “sloppy”. Compared to last week, I was finding the cleans a bit more labored and lockout wasn’t feeling so crisp even on the light weights. I was worried I’d miss the contest weight outright with how things were feeling. I’d feel pretty dumb if that happened considering last week and that this had been a suggested session for a contest deload for priming I had brough up. There was hesitancy at first but I got confident as I went with each press feeling strong. My only concern I was having was that clean was fatigued and not feeling so crisp. But I was feeling pretty relaxed and having a chat between sets while still focused. I like when EMOMs go like this where I feel powerful and can keep going. Hit a slight snag on the eighth set where I misgrooved and didn’t get the weight locked out. But I was able to just bat it back into place and then launch it up to get the rep easy. I don’t recall being able to do that as of late with a missed rep like that and get it like nothing without having to reclean the dumbbell and take a breather. It felt like it took nothing out of me. I think it was more that the clean had been the toughest of them so far and it through me off a little. I didn’t think twice before going for the second attempt at the rep. If that hadn’t been so smooth, I’d have stopped there for the day. I think the clean being tough got me a little fired up as I launch the next one up there for what might be my best rep of the day. Last one I paused a bit in the rack to let it settle and then went. My belt popped off as I set it down. A first on it happening with an overhead lift. So getting these reps had me in good spirits. I hadn’t been sure how things would be as still feeling the lower back and hamstring fatigue. Right hip flexor issue and feeling some disc compression stuff with left glute feeling like it wasn’t firing at the start of the day. From there on to sandbag carries. Warm up as needed and do two runs at contest weight for contest distance. The hip flexor issue isn’t really hampering me on these. The fatigue in my pick up is more so the case. Warming up with the 250lbs is rough still, at least for the first run I do. Ms. Funk indicated that she wanted me to try just pivoting at the line rather than slowing down to make a few steps and then turn. I’m actually not sure 100% if it will be around something or touching a line for the contest. Pick is a bit labored (I knew that would be the case with how shouldering felt) but moving with it well. Definitely didn’t get the timing right for the pivot on the first set and did a bunch of tiny steps. I got it somewhat right on the second set. Arm over arm next. Just two sets again but advised to go light and make these fast. So a little lighter than the first week I did these. I’d hopefully not need so much rest between sets. Well, having these this much lighter after adapting my style to something in excess of my bodyweight definitely added a new element to this. Yes, I was faster but I also was finding that I didn’t have the same balance point with my strokes as I felt like I was going to fall on my ass a few times and had to adjust my center of gravity. It was good that I did do a lighter session for speed (even though I messed up timing on the second set) as this lets me feel how I may need to adjust on the file day of depending on how the setup is and feels. This is the biggest unknown for the contest. Finishing up with the gym stuff. Reverse hypers again but adding tempo. Same weight but lowering the reps to 12 as adding 2 second pauses at the top and bottom of motion. The pauses at the bottom of the movement were nothing really but my goodness was the hold at the top a struggle. Really had to fight those as I couldn’t real hold at the top of the movement when I get the swing. So this was quite challenging here. I had been feeling some tension in glutes and lower back so I was hoping some of these would help with that. Then last thing being pulldown drop set. Stil 2 sets but some changes. Same starting weight with the 40lbs drop (both for 8 reps) and then only a 20lbs drop after that for the repping it out. These felt easier this week at least at the start. I guess not as fatigued with having only done two light runs of arm over arm. The fatigue became more apparent in the second set which has always been case with these. Put stuff away as I put in some food. Still construction so took a scenic route around it so drive home took a bit longer. Did some dip stand decompression when I got home before stretching. I nixed some of my usual stretches to my hip flexors to see if that also helps here with recovery.
Deadstop Supported Single Leg Dumbbell Romanian Deadlifts/Pull Ups 67x5/5 – bwx1 117x5/5 – bwx11 117x5/5 – bwx7
Stretching
Comments: No walking Wednesday after work since spending time with family and for some reason traffic was backed up a lot so took quite a bit of time to get home from work. I did have to take some allergy meds at night with the pollen and high winds as well blowing in crap. With training for this session, there were nerves with some things but I think the main one was this workout tends to eat up time and that trying to get through it and have time to eat and get ready for bed. The hip thing is off and on. Soft tissue foam rolling surprisingly not much was needed elsewhere but really needed it for my right quad. Neck rehab stuff followed and thankfully not as tense as I was expecting things. Lower body stretching and dead hang after that. Then on to the workout. Last week’s session had been a lot and it took a good bit out of me. The deadlift session with the axle this week wasn’t in the same realm of hellacious as last week. Notes indicated that I was to work up to contest weight for 1-2 reps (depending on how things feel) and then I’d drop it down to 405lbs for short rest doubles for “speed” work. I decided that I might go heavier on the top set just because with doing 40-50lbs jumps (quarter and plate). I’d see how I feel warming up. I could tell my lower back and hamstrings were still not fully recovered and then there was the hip thing, which thankfully wasn’t flaring up on deadlifts. I did my usual plate jumps and then after 315lbs I went to 40-50lbs jumps. My hope with doing more singles working up was that I’d hopefully get used to the belt sooner and not be feeling like I’m going to pass out on the first working set for reps and make things tougher than they need to be. Also give me an idea of what plan of approach (if able) to take warming up at the contest. This did seem to help with acclimating to the pressure. I had used my Velcro ply belt for the first two singles and the damn thing popped off the first attempt at 405lbs when I braced. Funny I bought this thing specifically for deadlifting and it pops off like 10% of the time. A lot less issues with other things using it though. I felt good enough to get hyped up to do a 50lbs jump so that I was doing 11lbs over contest for my last heavy touch on this event. These went up pretty well but I could tell my hamstrings were feeling it. I took a little rest to adjust for the speed sets. Plan being 60 seconds rest rather than EMOM. I didn’t rest 60 seconds but it was close to that (always under that). I was facing the other direction for these so that I could just walk back in from pacing in the house to come and pull it. These were easy and moving fast. Actually felt like speed work. Warming up this weight hadn’t feel like this so this was nice to see. Feeling like how this weight should be moving. So I nice feeling deadlift session. I guess I needed the very uncomfortable session last week to appreciate this one. Sandbag to shoulder following up. Less volume than last week but it was going to be tougher than last week with how it was setup. Confidence took a little hit here last week with how rough I was feeling doing these after the deadlifts and missing 305lbs on my second set. I was hoping that I’d not be as fatigued this week. This week the plan was to do my four sandbags I can shoulder with 5 seconds rest between them with aim to get them all done in under 60 seconds. Work fatigue factor and pacing with aim to give myself opportunity to get four attempts in 60 seconds if need be. I mean, I will likely only make 2 attempts really but not sure what weights are going to be available at show. But I’m apparently still feeling beat from last week. First run through was not great. I seemed to have an issue with getting the pick right and fumbled a bit on each bag. 225lbs I pretty much had go right over shoulder as I didn’t control it to set it back down. I knew 305lbs was going to be a rough go with how 265lbs felt. I also was feeling the hip flexor issue at extension. I didn’t feel as “loose” and mobile like I do when this feels strong. I felt stiff and inflexible. I had to adjust in the lap the 305lbs and I got it into position but just got stuck and struggling through and bumping it up had it go off to the side a bit and it came back down. I was feeling a bit drained there but didn’t let it discourage me. I’d rest and try again. I applied chalk for this second run. I wasn’t sure if it helped or hindered on this at this point in training. Like it helps with the pick and lap but not sure if it makes the shouldering harder from chest or not. 175lbs and 225lbs did seem better second round. 265lbs the pick was a tougher but the shouldering was easier. So I thought that 305lbs might happen. It did not. The pick was rough and I had to adjust in the lap again. I was closer this time to shouldering it though but same result. I was tempted to try the 305lbs bag by itself as a single but I figured it was best that I let this be and move on. I don’t have the time or luxury with the work schedule and it is obvious that I’m very fatigued in my lower back and hamstrings right now. It is frustrating in that I’ve done this weight and these weights in the past no problem in series (2021, 2022 and 2024) but perhaps not after doing so much deadlifting and not being this light in bodyweight. I also know in most cases that I had a longer build up for said shows to work out things and sometimes the shouldering was the heaviest thing for said session. It also wasn’t helpful feeling like the effort was making the hip flexor issue flare up on me. But we move on and adapt and learn from it. Accessory work from there. First up on that order being gms with the ssb to rack height. Weight increased 5-10lbs from last time but reps dropped in half to 3x6. I was perfectly fine with that. My lower back was feeling tight and I tried to get some tension out right before the first set but no avail. My hamstring were feeling really tense on these so I was glad to just have the lower reps this time around. I don’t know if I’d been able to handle higher reps as well with the weight increase. Body is craving rest for these worked areas. Sandbag zercher lunges with tempo pauses again. Dropped from 3 to 2 sets but back up 10 reps like that first terrible week with them and that was without tempo and I wasn’t dealing with the hip flexor issue. Before this session, these were seen as question marks with the one leg rdls if I could tolerate them. Options were banded leg extensions and leg curls for higher reps and slow tempo. I figured that with the “damage done” from the shouldering, that I might as well get these over with. I didn’t need as much warming up for my knees to get on with it. Also might be trying to get done. These just don’t seem to get easier. The additional two reps per set was quite tough here. I really hope I don’t have these the rest of the prep so I can recover and have peace of mind as it always seems to be single leg split stance stuff that irritates something in my hips or thighs when it is quad/knee dominant. The last thing was a superset. The supported dead stop single leg dumbbell rdls and pull ups. Weight increased on the rdls by 5lbs and reps dropped to 5 for this week. The two sets like last week was helpful here. No issues on the rdls with my hip flexor but I think maybe I was more worried about the hamstrings as they were twitching and screaming at this point. No issues but could tell that my midsection was also beat at this point. The decrease in reps on the rdls definitely saved my forearms and had me not breathing as hard afterwards when it came to pull ups. First set of pull ups felt like how they usually feel for me without all the extra fatigue. But second set the fatigue was fully present there. Stretched after eating. Really hoping I’m feeling recovered for Saturday since I got to get back on my usual days for the rest of prep.
Paused Banded Close Grip Push Ups/Paused Band Cross Face Pulls bw+abx16/(2)mb’sx20 bw+abx16/(2)mb’sx20
Stretching
Comments: Back on the onsite rotation with work, so losing an hour essentially each morning and evening. Weather continues to be a whiplash. It got up to low 80’s Sunday and it was near freezing Monday morning. The usually discomfort/soreness from long event training session did help in that I was up and active for the earlier start time with work. Work was uneventful for the most part and thankfully it seems most of the people that had been sick in the office for the past few weeks were either better or reverted to an offsite schedule. Hip flexor issue with the right side persists but not feeling the need for ibuprofen like last week at the end of the week. Also probably because it didn’t really do much. Walking Monday after work (there is daylight now) to see if moving helped with recovery and such as my lower back is still pretty darn cooked from last week. A little delay in starting training figuring out the workout plan for the week. Soft tissue work to start off the day. Right quad needed it the most as tense/tender from the hip flexor issue. Neck rehab stuff felt fine. Lower body stretching was ok followed by a dead hang. From there is was the tempo dumbbell push pressing. Same modification as last week with just pause at lockout and the 4 seconds eccentric. Suggested weight for these was increased to 90lbs for 3x3. Last week I had done smaller jumps and started heavier working up as I felt that with how I need the larger diameter plates on the plateloaded handles that I should do a set with those so the clean wasn’t so rough on these. Knees were feeling a bit achy and with not having as much “free time” after work, I felt it was best to do what I felt would be enough to get ready for the top set and be the least time consuming. I was not expecting the hip flexor issue to be present here. It had only flared up after Thursday session (and I guess during) but it hadn’t been an issue on circus dumbbell but I guess with this being bilateral rather than unilateral, I can’t really move in a way that abates the stress. That wasn’t terribly pleasant. I’ve been in this situation before so I knew I could tolerate it. My lower body was definitely beat as I was essentially stifflegged muscling up the weights to get them into the rack position. The 3lbs increase in weight on the dumbbells was noticed. I think I was also a little hesitant with the clean to shoulders with the hip thing going but I bit the bullet to put a bit more umph into it on the third set and that did go up better to the shoulders (almost got off balance forward). Did attempt to work on being “solid” on the pressing. I seem to relax too much at points. I think because I worry about exhausting myself with straining the entire time if I’m bracing at all points. This is still a work in progress. But these were done and I could move back into the garage for the rest of the session. Axle floor pressing again with the paused lockouts. These were to be decently heavy again. I had been pleased that I had been able to go heavier on these past two weeks of training on these when things have felt not the best with prone pressing. I’m moving things quite well for the most part but it does feel like if I’m not fast that I will hit a wall if that makes sense. It is taking longer than I anticipated to get back into a heavier weight range on pressing (besides circus bell) and deadlifts but getting there. So the plan for the session was 4x2 (still doing the lockout holds) with 10-15lbs more than the weight last week. I was already thinking about doing more than that. Like doing 10lbs more than last week but then being sneaky and adding 5lbs per set. Take advantage of the less fatiguing dumbbell work compared to earlier in the training cycle and feel strong. I decided against that plan only because I decided to stick to straight sets but go up 20lbs. That way I was doing plate and quarter jumps to three plates on the empty axle. This would likely be the most I’ve done of any kind of prone pressing in like 2yrs. First set was powerful and easy. Not quite the case for the other three sets. First rep was always feeling good and strong but could tell on the second reps that there was a slight sticking point and then it went up. But felt good for the most part here. I could tell that my shoulders were a little achy and tense at this point in the workout. Had been at the start. Then on to the first of two supersets that have been the second half of this session this cycle. Chest flyes with internal rotation and single arm triceps. Same weight suggestion for both as last week but going from to 3x12. Again, chest felt a little iffy at the start for these while triceps seemed ok to deal with what was about to happen. Felt some tension and aches in the right shoulder on the flyes. I had done more reps on them to warm up compared to how I have been. Triceps seemed to be fine with everything. I’m fine with having these be lighter weights as the pauses are making them quite tough and exhausting and I am noticing the difference with pressing from doing these this way. Last pairing for the evening still paused banded push ups and the paused face pull variation. Dropping to two sets, same rep range on the push ups and increasing the reps on the face pulls. Notes on the push ups was to try and keep my brace so that I wasn’t having my midsection sag with the push ups. Again, something like how I tend to relax on the overhead. With the drop in sets and with how well the light band had felt last week, I went up to the average band to see if that worked for me. The biggest issue I’m finding is with having the band want to slide down my triceps so that caused me some issues today where I had to reset after four reps on the first set to get things situated again and resume. All the cues did make it a bit tough to know what I was doing on the push ups as working on bracing, holding pause and lockout. There were times I did a pause at lockout by mistake and maybe cut a pause to short. Oh well. Work was done. The face pulls are quite exhausting at this rep range with the pauses. Got through the session and put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.
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 a short stint of off-season training until I decide on next competition (likely end of August). I’m not a major competitor yet and I have a long way to go but I’m having fun.
