December 15, 2019 – Week 2, Day 3

5 Minutes NordicTrack

Mobility Prep

NY Barbell Yoke (low pick, casual pace)

200x100’

250x100’

300x100’

350x100’

Stone of Steel Rows

138x32 PR+9 reps

138x28

Prowler Push/Drag Medleys (casual pace)

275x100’/100’

275x100’/100’

275x100’/100’

275x100’/100’

275x100’/100’

Stretching

Comments: Things feeling better compared to last week at this time. Saturday I didn’t do much. I did have to be up to go and apply for a passport but that didn’t take long. Most of the workout involved longer distance stuff like last week and it was cold and rainy all day. Weather forecast had it being dry and somewhat sunny tomorrow so I figured it made a lot more sense to rest, take care of things at home that I’d been putting off and get a good night’s sleep and be raring to go the next day. I honestly didn’t expect there to be anyone there this morning considering the night before was the gym Christmas party. Plenty of evidence of that when I got there haha. Did foam rolling before my warm ups as that seems to help with things after driving. As I said, I may need to invest in one for traveling as this may be a new thing I’ll need to do if I’m stuck sitting still for a long time. Warm ups felt good. Didn’t bother doing hip swings that I added as things felt good. I will say my quads had a deep soreness that was present during some of this. So as is usually the case, this week is yoke. They pair nicely with farmer’s walk. Same thing, casual pace, 100’. Now as the inside isn’t conducive to 100’ runs right now, this would be outside. And can’t open the large doors so walking around with the Rogue yokes to do this wasn’t smart or worthwhile. So used the really light yoke I brought in last week as that sucker is 90lbs so hardly anything to move around and I can fit it through the people sized doors. I also left it at the low pick height (for me) as it would be easier to move around to get outside and back inside. Weight was going to be super light anyways and I could work on the pick and bracing similar to farmer’s again. Only going to use this yoke this way for just this week anyways. First run was a mess. The wind blew the cone at the finish away as I was going and a car came up on the path. I had no idea what was going on and I wasn’t really going to move any faster. I then got close enough to realize it was one of the owners of the gym as they needed to load stuff from the party into the truck. Felt stupid after that haha. Used a heavier cone for the other sets. Didn’t get the same lower back pump I had last week after doing the runs like I was getting with the farmer’s walk. Feels odd moving slowly on these but it’s important right now. I’ve done this with heavy weights too. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Left hip was a little stiff but no worse for wear. Again, had the choice to skip the stone of steel rows and do the prowler stuff but they didn’t bother me last week so here were are again. I also didn’t want to do the prowler stuff again. This time, it was two sets, trying to beat last time’s reps each set by a few reps. Stone of steel rows felt way easier this time. Bracing didn’t seem to be something I had to consciously do this time. Not as much build up. Automatic and able to hold the brace for several reps in a row.  Crushed it that first set and was almost lost count on the second set. These are getting interesting. Again, going to need to do soft tissue work on the arms since I got one less day of rest this coming week. My lower back and hamstrings were pumped from this from holding the position for so long. Last thing was working the prowler. Sets of 100’ for push and drag again. I was advised I could do the same weight again but I’m stupid and did more. I had all these 25’s that I was using on yoke so I figured I’d just do those. I had thought it was 10lbs more but it was actually 20lbs. The push isn’t bad, it’s that darn drag. Casual pace again for five sets. My rests were around 70 seconds besides the first one, which ended up being 90 seconds or so because I started a conversation with the gym owners and lost count of where I was in my rest. Legs felt heavy and it was definitely taking me longer to do these this week. I know I can move faster on the push part but the drag portion my legs feel so damn heavy that I wonder if I could move faster without falling over. I feel like an inebriated ostrich. I ended up going too slow on the 4^th and 5^th set as the friction caught up with me and stopped me in my tracks on the drag portion. I took enough of a break to hopefully ensure that I finished the rest of the course with no further stops. I knew I could do that for the 4^th set. Wasn’t so sure on the 5^th set. Maybe knowing it was over on that one helped. Stupid legs after all that so it was nice to take my time putting things away until my breathing was back to normalish and my legs weren’t acting like they were disconnected and filled with jellyfish. Did some rehab stuff in the form of bodyweight revere hypers for a set of 50 reps and 20 diaphragm breathes in the 90/90 position with holds. Going home to relax and get to bed at a reasonable hour. I’m happy things are holding up. This is a positive direction. Overall, I’m sure I’ll be back at 100% or beyond by June.

December 12, 2019 – Week 2, Day 2

5 Minutes Precor AMT

Mobility Prep

Deadlifts (top start)

45x10

95x5

135x5

185x5

225x5

Precor Angled Single Leg Presses

136x10/10

226x10/10

316x10/10

406x10/10

496x10/10

Hanging Knee Raises

bwx35

bwx35

bwx35

Stretching

Comments: So I think things are on the mend from the spasm I had Monday evening. Talking with Mr. Westerling, it could be I’m doing too much rehab stuff. The TENS unit is essentially giving those areas jolts to contract like a thousand times. Stuck on that more is more stuff. Drop the rehab stuff for the rest of the week and see how things are. No TENS unit and just rely on heat, decompression and soft tissue work. Starting to get that confidence back that my body won’t collapse on me. But still got to be cautious as it seems like there is a two day delay on stuff for my body registering it haha. This was going to be an interesting one. Things still tensing a bit. Warmed up and that felt ok. Lower back was a bit tense from some things but ok. I felt mostly comfortable with the first exercise. This was deadlifts. Starting from the rack like the rdls last week. Easier to brace starting from the top. I figured the weight wouldn’t be a problem since I did 185lbs for 10 on the rdls and this was for lower reps, just a greater ROM. Not the best knurling on this bar but that is fine at this weight. My right biceps felt tight but kind of expected with the upper body session earlier this week and the reps as well as the rows I did on Saturday with the stone of steel. Nicked my shins a little but still good I think. No support gear on these. Need to work that brace. Get comfortable with that, then worry about the other things. So I didn’t have my spine explode and I wasn’t on the ground in pain so on to the next exercise. I was leery about this one. Single leg presses. I got good at these prepping for USS Nats this year after the previous back injury relapse but it was exhausting. 30-40 rep range. I wasn’t sure how these would go and if these would just wreck me. I felt good with the deadlifts. Low 400lbs was where I stopped on these in the 30 rep range so since this was another moderate weight set, I figured I should be safe doing that and maybe a bit more to be in compliance with parameters. I decided on plate jumps and starting with the empty sled. If the empty sled was fine, then I’d do my plate jump plan. I was very slow on that first set with the injured side. Much smoother on the other side. I’m just glad that I was able to do these and not be in pain. Bracing big time on these. I probably should’ve stopped at 406lbs as that felt heavy. These are weird in that it feels heavy but I can do a lot of reps when conditioned. 496lbs was quite a bit more challenging. I got the reps but certainly not a super easy set. This required effort. And technically the most I’ve done on this exercise. The future will tell I guess as I feel ok right now. Just like that I can still move a decent weight with my legs even though they are deconditioned. Last thing was abdominals. I was initially going to do these with my elbows braced to keep from bothering my shoulders and keep from swaying. However, this would cut down on the decompression and spine traction that I probably need. Then I realized that these were the knee raises, not the leg raises. That arc of motion is much easier to control and doesn’t cause any rotation stress on my shoulders. Idea here was three sets and not going to max effort. So I figured the best thing was to do the first set until I felt my grip was going to go and then try to match it the remaining sets. I might have been missing out on these. Felt like this was a good session. Beginning to feel optimistic I can compete this year at a decent level.

December 10, 2019 – Week 2, Day 1

5 Minutes Precor AMT

Mobility Prep

12” Log Strict Presses

Dumbbells

25’sx10

35’sx10

Log

90x10

110x10

Neutral Grip Pulldowns

110x10

130x10

150x10

170x10

190x10

Push-ups

bwx37

bwx30

bwx15

Neutral Grip Precor Chest Supported Rows

150x10

180x10

210x10

240x10

270x10

Stretching

Comments: Ups and downs last week. Getting rest Sunday and Monday seemed to be what I needed and I was feeling really great by the end of the day on Monday. But then after I finished up all the recovery and rehab stuff, my lower back just seized up on me. No clue what happened. Sleep is important so since it didn’t really calm down after a hot shower, I took ibuprofen and a muscle relaxer. It was better this morning but still not pleasant. Hard to tell if this is one of those “it feels worse but is getting better” scenarios. It seems muscular in nature so that’s better than nerves and this would hopefully be considered centralizing of the pain/symptoms. Regardless of how I shake this snow globe for a yes answer, it still sucks for now. This delayed stuff is making it very difficult to assess things and make timely decisions.  I really didn’t know if I was going to really train today. My plan was to get to the gym and do some foam rolling and decompression and see if that helped anything. That seemed to do something and since this was upper body stuff with no leg drive or bending over involved, I figured I could still do this. Trying to get things loose with the warm-ups. So first up was log strict presses. A bit different from axle last week in that I had set weights for this. I could warm-up with dumbbells however I wanted and then it would be empty log and then plus 20lbs for 10’s. I did equivalent jumps with the dumbbells for sets of 10. Felt it made more sense to do log from the closer rack rather than risk something trying to maneuver it around. Being lazy with the rack arms had this a little too high for reps and I had to walk it back after banging a few. Log feels heavy to me since I’ve not done it in a while. Different feel from the axle. Easy enough but not as easy as I would’ve liked. The next exercise was the same scheme as last week. Neutral grip pulldowns, with the plan being 5-7 sets of 10 reps. Same thing, with expectation to only get five sets from my hopeful seven. I lowered my weight by 10lbs from what I was going to use with how regular felt last week. This wasn’t a pulldown exercise I did for higher reps so this one isn’t as comfortable to get back to. So about 20lbs difference from the other style of pulldown I like. Next was a change. Just push-ups. Three sets of bodyweight for max reps. My plan here was do 5 minutes rest or so. No clue what to expect. Back was a little stiff so I’d self-adjust after some sets of exercises. Considering all the press-ups I’ve been doing for my back, I thought I’d get more here on the first set. Like 50 or so. I could’ve done more but it would’ve been ugly reps and I need to work this bracing. I know I drop off quick on push-ups so I was surprised to get 30 reps that second set. Third set was about what I was expecting to get on the second set and stay around there. No ego, allowing easy things to be hard for now. Last thing was chest supported rows. With how the previous week’s rowing had my SI joint ache from moving (hard to brace sometimes), I was a tad concerned this would be more of the same. Going to vigorously on this in the past had reinjured me trying to rehab back in 2016. Mr. Westerling had indicated I needed to brace like I would an atlas stone load. This got me thinking and I couldn’t think of when I was bracing on atlas stones other than the pick. Maybe that is where I’m going wrong with my extensions, not bracing correctly. I will say that bracing on chest supported rows is different. Almost lightheaded that first rep. These started out sucky but I got my groove as I did them. I meant for there to be another jump but I messed up my math so did a bit heavier than expected. Back was stiff as hell though. Stretching, heat and TENS unit and recovery burritos. I don’t feel like training made it worse. Will have to see how sleeping does the trick.

December 7, 2019 – Week 1, Day 3

5 Minutes NordicTrack

Mobility Prep

Rogue Farmer’s Walk (16” pick, casual pace)

23x100’

73x100’

113x100’

163x100’

Stone of Steel Rows

138x23

Prowler Push/Drag Medleys (casual pace)

255x100’/100’

255x100’/100’

255x100’/100’

255x100’/100’

255x100’/100’

Stretching

Comments: I was really hoping that I’d be feeling a bit better before going to train this day. I was excited to train but some niggles made this seem like a maybe. This would require a drive out to Lancaster to do so it required a commitment as that would be 45 minutes in the car each way. I had perhaps got too much that I had planned to do. I couldn’t sleep in forever as I needed to get passport photos (only open 3hrs on Saturday). Getting a passport since my state is stubborn with real ID laws so I may need it for flying to USS Nats in Minnesota and if say I end up with an invite for international competition, I’d need one then. Been putting it off due to injuries as I meant to get one prior to USS Nats this year. I also kind of promised to bring in some gym equipment for the gym since they lacked lighter weight stuff for yoke. I got a 90lbs empty yoke just collecting dust and spiders and I’d rather have the women and novice have a chance to try yoke press then get something substituted at the upcoming gym contest in February. That was more of a pain in the ass than I had planned on it being getting that into my tiny car. I knew it fit as I got it years ago and it fit in the car. So I was going to be up and about. If things bothered me, I’d just change it into a rehab and socializing session and have to go back to square zero (I feel like I’m on square one as it is). Took a bit of time to get things moved at the gym. The large doors were not really opening due to added insulation so I had to move things piecemeal through the regular door. This also meant moving things outside for stuff wouldn’t be so easy. But that was okay for now as it was all light stuff. Caught up with some friends and got a little distracted by the large great dane puppy. Ended up doing some foam rolling before training and warming up as I didn’t go for a walk the night before. Trying to keep from getting a cold from not getting enough rest. This could also be from me loading creatine. Never did it before but I’ve never been off it since I started using it when I came back from injury the first time. But that stops tomorrow and then it’s just regular stuff. Also ended up doing some hangs to decompress things a little. Warm-ups felt ok. I may need to invest in a foam roller as my IT bands are tight. Didn’t realize how tight my quads are. Added some hip swings to loosen things up too with my regular warm-ups. First exercise was farmer’s walk. Plan here was super light and go at a slow pace. Like I was walking. Not going as hard and fast as I can. I brought my Rogue Fitness handles to use as they were the lightest I have and would be easier to move around. Outside was cold but it was really the only place to get 100’ run with somewhat even ground and  a straight shot. I had to do things a little to the side as a HVAC van was parked in the middle. I did these a bit different than usual. No belt as honestly, light weights were going to be used and I wanted to practice my bracing with nothing some more, especially since this was kind of the first time bracing from the bottom at a dead start. I gripped the handles dead center rather than towards the back. Again, light weight, not going for speed and this also was better to balance the handles and not worry about the weights sliding off. Very slow moving. I think my fastest was 30 seconds or so so quite a bit of time under tension. Felt a little bit of tension in my right obliques on the penultimate set. No issues while doing these but I’d feel a little bit of a lower back pump a few moments later once I was done that seemed to subside in short order. Can’t tell if more weight or just the fact I was moving slower or more gingerly with the heavier stuff (IE more time under tension) that had it last a little longer. This weight has never felt so challenging haha. Maybe because I got to go slow and maybe because I had to evade a elderly woman being pushed in a wheelchair while avoiding cracks in the concrete. So this was done and I had two choices really. Skip the next exercise and go into the prowler work or try the next exercise and then do the prowler stuff. I kind of subconsciously decided on the 2^nd option as I had been putting away all the weights after the farmer’s walk stuff and I was going to have to bring it back out for the prowler stuff. But I didn’t feel comfortable leaving stuff outside unattended. I was pretty much the only person left by this point. This next one was something I’ve only done once before; rows with the stone of steel. I don’t think anybody really uses now since it has the dent in it so it only seals at one spot. Goal here was do as many as I could as long as I felt I could safely brace. I figured the best way to do that was to reset my brace every rep and really focus on that one effort. This was challenging at the start. The most I’ve done with this thing empty was 5 for a warm-up one time. That felt like I’d barely get over that as my arms were slipping. I remedied things by getting a bit deeper on the stone. I lost count and I just kept going until I got tired and couldn’t keep my arms secured as well as I wanted to. Turns out I got just one shy of two dozen. This felt good. Going to need to use the car buffer on my biceps later haha. Last thing was working the prowler. Sets of 100’ for push and drag. Not enough space to safely do it on the same area as the farmer’s walk due to the van and not enough room inside so I journeyed down to the parking lot. No idea what this terrain would be like. I was also not to “sprint” so this was at the same casual pace as the farmer’s walk. Going fast would probably be easier as the momentum would be built and the friction not so much. No ramps or anything so a bit of a pain to get everything set up. Plan was 5 sets with 1 minute rest. I don’t have a watch anymore so I counted in my head. Going slow is tough, especially the drag. I didn’t think I’d finish this after the first two sets. Total time was between 70 and 90 seconds to complete and that was about what my rest periods were as well it seems. Legs were quivering by the end. Did some decompression stuff before stretching things out. Used the TENS unit on the ride home to help with things. So a week down and hopefully I don’t end up sidelined again here. I hope but I also know that hope is not a plan. Got to be active about it. See how two days of rest go.

December 5, 2019 – Week 1, Day 2

5 Minutes Precor AMT

Mobility Prep

Hatfield Squats to box (18”)

60x10

150x5

240x5

270x5

300x5

330x5

360x5

390x5

420x5

450x5

Romanian Deadlifts (top start)

45x10

95x11

135x10

185x10

Pulldown Abs (pulldown station)

40x3

80x3

100x10

120x10

135x10

Stretching

Comments: I thought things would be good with how I felt after training last session. Only slight aches from rows. Almost feeling myself. But feeling like I might be getting a cold and my SI joint was aching a lot come Thursday. Maybe just getting to me now. Maybe extracurriculars had something to do with it. Maybe being lax in rehab and recovery stuff the past few days didn’t help. But I wasn’t happy with how it felt Thursday. I want to be better. I want to be training. Trying to not get to rely on ibuprofen and using natural stuff. Haven’t used any since finished with the Prednisone. See how things go and if necessary, shut them down. Warming up as per usual but not worrying about the heartrate stuff. Just do my five minutes and then move on. Felt fine. Movement stuff was also fine. First exercise was hatfield squats. A way to still squat heavy while dealing with this crap. Plan here was warm-up and then do sets of five taking 30lbs jumps up to a moderate top set. Not quite box squats. Motion was to brace, slow eccentric and lightly touch the box and then squat up with authority. It wasn’t so long since I did a set so I had expectations of what to hit. Really hitting the legs and I’m able to stay upright with neutral spine. Definitely some pressure on the left side. Smallish jumps and slow eccentrics made fatigue go up quick on these. Glutes (especially the left side) were cramping by the time I got over 300lbs. I knew these were going to make me sore in the legs. Adding layers for the midsection as I went. I want to work on bracing better but also with belted work. I wanted to keep going after the last set but I figured this was the first workout and I had already not been feeling great to begin with and the idea was a moderate set. Treat things like the previous session and stop here. Posterior chain was quivering by the end from these. Next was Romanian deadlifts. I feel that these might be a missing piece to my deadlift woes as I had been doing variations of these a lot in the past when my deadlift was 645lbs without a suit. But this was to test things. Starting from the top of the rack with the bar and doing sets of 10 reps. Working that time under tension by taking a breath at the top and bracing and doing a slow eccentric. Easier to work the bracing from the top. Sets taking like a minute so a lot of work for the hamstrings, glutes and grip (doing these double overhand). I elected no belt considering how light these were so that I could practice bracing without a tactile guide. I miscounted on the second set. Oh well. Still feeling about the same so on to 135lbs. Still good. 50lbs more for a final set. That jump was noticeably tougher than the previous sets. Even though my grip was feeling it by the end, I didn’t rush things. Last item for the day was pulldown abs. Plan being 3 sets of 10. I elected to use the pulldown station tower weight stack instead of the cable tower as the weight “feels” heavier. For comparison, I did 200lbs for like 35 reps or so on the cable tower setup. I also can’t stand up fully with it and have to use a towel to keep from having things be painful on my rear. Idea here is to get abs working like in squat and deadlift, more bracing and some traction from the weight pulling up on the spine. Ended up using less than I expected here. It was more the grip on the rope attachment than anything as far as the abdominals. Figuring that it was again to be “moderate” that I not push that. I’ve done these with slight breaks due to grip on the slick handles (chalk doesn’t really help) but I felt that would be against the spirit of the session and weight guidelines. Home to stretch and eat. And try to get some sleep to help with recovery. Definitely going to get in recovery and rehab stuff tomorrow. Going to need a relaxing weekend to recover I think. I really hope I don’t lose ground here on this setback.

December 2, 2019 – Week 1, Day 1

5 Minutes Precor AMT

Mobility Prep

Axle Strict Presses

72x10

92x10

112x10

132x10

Pulldowns

130x10

150x10

170x10

190x10

210x10

Precor Pec Flyes

125x10

145x10

165x10

185x10

205x10

Cybex Eagle NX Rows

150x10

170x10

190x10

210x10

230x10

Stretching

Comments: Hoping that this time around doesn’t end abruptly. Trying to be smart. Well smartish. Warming up as per usual but not worrying about the heartrate stuff. Just do my five minutes and then move on. I knew it wasn’t going to be super easy with only doing walks most days. Movement prep stuff was adjusted. Stuff dropped, stuff added and stuff from before reduced. No static stretching. Felt good. Like a good warm-up. I had thought I’d need other stuff but this was good. So first up was axle strict presses. Idea was sets of 10, up to a set I could probably do for 20 but stop at 10. That was pretty much the theme for the entire day. I was going to start with my thicker than normal hollow bar but I felt pretty good in the shoulders and I just went with the solid axle. I had to use the tiered squat rack as someone was using the power rack to get there Instagram booty stuff done. 20lbs jumps, feeling easy. I didn’t want to take much rest but I knew I’d fatigue faster if I didn’t take some kind of rest. I figured that I’d do the first few sets and then space things out. Heaviest I was planning was 152lbs but I felt at 112lbs that the next jump should be the last one. Working on breathing, bracing. No ugly reps. The rest of the workout, the plan was 5-7 sets of 10 reps. I had looked at weights at my best I had hit around 20 reps and used that as my top weight if I felt good for the 7^th set. Pulldowns I wasn’t sure how those would feel. Trying to get some traction exercises in play to help recovery. Felt good, felt like I was going to be doing my goal no problem. Then the fatigue. I guess I’m used to the bigger jumps and lower reps to work up to the high rep set. About 40lbs shy of those weights. Not a problem. I knew I’d be rusty and this isn’t discouraging. I’m feeling good being in the gym with purpose. Pec flyes after that. I thought for sure I’d get to the bottom of the stack. Nope. Fatigue built up quick. Probably should’ve called it at 185lbs haha. I thought this wouldn’t be that bad considering all the press-ups I’ve been doing for my back. Must be more triceps and shoulder than I thought. Last thing was machine rows. This was the one I had to actually lower my expectations on as this felt really difficult and I dropped things down 20lbs to make sure I got five sets. This was causing a bit of hip ache but manageable. Have to see how it is later in the week as thing accumulate. Home to stretch and use heating pad. Feels like muscle aches mostly so that is hopefully a good sign. Fingers crossed. I really want to get back to competing.

Reboot

So quite obvious that things didn't pan out with my little experiment. Not a failure in that I did learn things but not a success. I thought it was a minor thing and I'd be back to form with rest but that didn't happen. I had seen how quick I improved when the back issue happened in December last year leading up to the Arnold. Same issue but just different exercise. I've had disc issues in the past doing beltless block pulls. The time that I was out for 7 months it had been doing stone of steel and it was going for the extension that it went. In December, it was a sandbag load and this last time, getting under a rep on viking press with too much extension. I'm not sure what I need to correct to keep this from happening. Chiro had told me back in December that I have narrow openings for the nerves in my spine so something that someone else might not notice would be noticed with me.

I tried doing things on my own with programming, looking back at what I did in training. While I've hit my best overhead on log in contest to date at NY Record Breakers and pressing was seeming to be on the upswing, I had wondered if perhaps when I was doing two pressing days a week with higher volume had been a better approach. I remember at the end of my one peak, I was hitting 300lbs or more each session in the last month and hit 300lbs for a double (2015) and a 200lbs dumbbell for a near triple. My form was crap but I was strong. So I took ideas from then and ideas from more recent training to try and piece something together for NY Strongest. I think my plan could work but it was too much too soon. I think what did me in honestly was the stone loads getting that full extension. Set me back so I ended up withdrawing from that show as well. Kept myself busy.

I then had another thought that back then, my overhead was really strong but I was slow on most things and my deadlift generally was beating me up in training but I managed to pull well at contest (made things harder in training). However, my deadlift had been it's strongest in 2011 when I was doing conjugate. Heavy pulls two weeks, box squat one week, always speed box squats. This wasn't always successful and I think that it stopped working when I got away from doing RDLs (sumo, regular and wide grip) after my main sets and doing GMs or front squats or snatch grip deads. My form was bad but I had good power off the floor. I was also doing heavy leg press on the speed day after squats.

But even with that plan being worked on, I think that it may be too much. Difficult to plan in events, especially coming back from injury again and fighting that temptation to just go all out. So my start to return kept getting delayed. I had hoped to be beginning of this month but pushed to the beginning of next month. Hard to keep motivated when progress with the back isn't going so fast. Insurance was fighting with chiro over coverage and this time, I wasn't feeling the relief I was getting like last time. Too pricey to be doing $65 a visit twice a week. I got some relief to the symptoms from the Nutra-Disc. Stocked up on those. Eventually I went to the ortho primarily to get prescribed prednisone and muscle relaxers to get my back to stop spasming as massage therapy wasn't cutting it. Monday was the last day of that.

I had been walking just about every day once things calmed down enough and for the past week, I've been doing rehab stuff on top of that. This is what I've been doing.

20 minutes TENS Unit Massage Setting
20 minutes TENS Unit Dry Needling Setting
15 minutes heating pack
5 minutes in the prone position
30 repetitions of a Mackenzie back exercise
20 reps nerve glides
5 minutes for diaphragm breathing
20 holds of the abs for 5 seconds
30 reps of theraband pullovers
20 reps each side of leg fall-outs.
20 lying clams
20 reps of glute bridges
20 table taps
alternating leg lifts was done for 15 each leg.
modified bird dog exercise for 20 reps each side.
30 repetitions of a Mackenzie back exercise with towel pressure
isometric crushing of couch cushions against the wall (10 sets of 10 sec each side).
30 hip hinges
30 hip hinges (wide)
2 sets of about 30 seconds for regular style planks
2 sets of 30 seconds for side hold planks

I'll admit that I haven't stuck it to well this week with holidays and other life things. I've also been doing nerve glides and back exercise throughout the day and I've just started doing hangs of my lower body off my bed for some light traction. Withdraw from Prednisone is something I haven't had before but I did this time. Got cramps and aches. I didn't realize that it weakened the immune system and suppressed cortisol in the body. Now I know.

Last Sunday I went to the gym to test out some of my ideas for returning to training. Some seemed good in theory but sucked in practice while others seemed to be knock outs. I was doing weighted dips with the slingshot and the traction from that made something shift and I felt instant relief. Still tender but it was great to feel that. Didn't feel like my spine was stuck in my left back pocket like it has for the past two almost three months.

I want to get back to training again. At this point, I've qualified for USS Nats as 308lbs class since I went for the heavier class at NY Record Breakers so I could do more weight on the farmer's hold.

USS Nationals – 6/27/20 – Minneapolis, MN (USS) 30 weeks out
Press Medley (log/axle) – 280lbs/300lbs, back and forth, start on either
Deadlift for Reps – 685lbs, no suits, touch and go allowed
Farmer’s Walk – 305lbs, 100’ course, turn at 50’
Husafell & Sandbag Carry – 350lbs/300lbs, 50’ each, run back for 2nd implement
Stone Carry and Load – 320lbs/340lbs/360lbs, 56” bar, staggered distances (15’/10’/5’)

Ideally, I would get my deadlift up to near the contest weight (685lbs). The other events, even injured, I feel I could do and not bomb right now but I can't guarantee I can do them and not get hurt or be out of commission for a few weeks. I don't want this to be another year where I've qualified and plan on competing but don't. There are other contests coming up but I need to be healthy first. It would probably be better if I qualified for under 275lbs (I'm down a bit from not eating as much) as that would be less weight I'd have to be prepared to move. But another part of me thinks just be HW, pro level doesn't have divisions in HW.

Looking at the year and timeline, everything is set to give USS Nats my best shot. 30 weeks is hopefully enough time to slowly build back. The smart thing (if anything I do strongman related is smart) is nothing besides this. I feel I need to be more selective of what shows I do as much as I hate to admit it, there may only be a finite amount I got. Costs for USS Nats aren't bad with everything (flights, hotel, entry, food) under $1,000 total. SC Nats hotel stay alone is in excess of $820 so not even going to bother with it this year (and to be honest, I'm sick of the "event issues" each year).

So back to light training this coming week, working with Mike Westerling again. Life is going, just doing my best to stay positive about things. Strongman has lead me to so many good things in my life. Be a shame to stop when it's not my decision to stop.