July 12, 2021 – Week 18, Day 1

Mobility Prep
 
Paused Axle Push Presses (2 seconds, beltless)
30x2
70x2
100x2
130x2
160x2
160x2
160x2

Axle Push Presses (beltless)
210x2
210x2
210x2
210x2

Inverted Ring Rows/Platform Push-ups (4.5”)
bwx15/bwx15
bwx10/bwx10
bwx6/bwx6

Band Face Pulls/Band Triceps Pressdowns/Band Biceps Curls
lbx20/abx20/mb’sx20
lbx20/abx20/mb’sx20

Kettlebell Pullover PNF Stretches
10’sx10
10’sx10

Stretching
 
Comments: I didn’t think I’d be doing any training this week. Again, assumptions based on past training. Not that what I was doing was wrong or what I am doing isn’t as effective. I honestly don’t know and have nothing to compare it to. This could be a ton better at prepping for competition. Have to wait and see. As previously mentioned, computer died Saturday morning. Spent Sunday getting stuff ready for the weekend and after and getting house in order. Then power went out at night so that was fun. Weather has been kind of crazy with it being hot and humid and then really severe thunderstorms rolling through at least once a day. It was hard to tell if I’d be able to train outside for this session but as has been the case, I’ve at least been mildly lucky with weather clearing up enough for me to train outside on Mondays. Foam rolling was definitely needed. Split squat iso holds didn’t bother my knees nearly as much as I was expecting but my hip flexors and quads were tight. Other mobility prep was good. I had a stiff neck and my right knee was achy when I woke up but got better as the day went on. Short and sweet workout, though that is relative since I think shortest I’ve done has been still over 75 minutes to compete. Started things off with paused axle push presses. Messed up the math and had to correct with a 40lbs jump. No support gear of any kind today. Other than unracking 130lbs to violently and hitting myself in the throat doing so, these went well. Only 50% of max so it should be easy. Then to regular axle push presses. 50lbs jump was noticed. Technically 2lbs over what I was to do but it was easier plate math. It felt heavy on my shoulders at first but I knew it would be no problem. Second set I got a little off balance. This was easy work. Trying to take short rests to get through things. I normally do this kind of deload weight and it usually feels like ass when I do it because I’ve mentally checked out and my body just aches. Not the case this time. Then it was on to the pump stuff. First was pairing of inverted ring rows and platform push-ups. Advised to do a slight pause at max contraction on the rows and at max stretch on the push-ups. Plan here was three sets and leaving 3-4RIR each set. Started off well enough but my tendency to want to do these all back to back as one big set really cut the reps on the following sets. I think the only superset stuff where I haven’t done this has been when doing the tempo Bulgarian split squats because I couldn’t keep going one after the other. The rows were fatigued first (I just did them Thursday last week and did arm-over-arm on Saturday) and my biceps and forearms were tiring out fast. I just decided to match the reps on the push-ups. They were slower and tougher to do but I was feeling like they were getting fatigued at a slower rate. Going forward when it comes to exercise pairings, I think I need to figure out if the idea is to do a big circuit like that or just to do pairings and take adequate rest between the sets. I think I like this method as it seems to work most of the time (I think) in that it is light pump work, and I’m essentially working for minutes at a time. Getting a good sweat and blood flow going and training for lactic acid fatigue. Next was a bunch of band exercises. These ended up being easier than I expected. Perhaps because the stuff beforehand wasn’t that taxing. These were quite easy and felt good. Last item was a new one. Pullover PNF stretching. I was to do 2 sets of 10 of these with I guess a rep being an isometric contraction and then relaxing into the stretch to try and increase range of motion and thoracic mobility. I don’t have an EZ Curl Bar anymore at home so I figured my light kettlebells would work as far as a more ergonomic grip and wrist position. I may have lost count on reps but I essentially do them with a 5ct for the contract and the stretch and kept going until I got the kettlebells to touch the floor with no strain. So I think I did these right. Ate a bit eye round roast for dinner and then put the weights away and stretched. Iced knees before bed.

July 10, 2021 – Week 17, Day 4

Mobility Prep
 
Lateral Step Downs 
bwx5/5 (12”)
bwx5/5 (12”)
bwx3/3 (16”)
bwx3/3 (20”)
bwx1/1 (24”)
bwx8/8 (24”)
bwx8/8 (24”)
bwx8/8 (24”)

Sandbag Tosses (15’)
35x1
35x1
35x1
35x1
35x1
35x1
35x1
35x1

Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses
Plate Loaded Dumbbell with Fat Gripz Extreme
75x1 L
75x1 R
95x1 L
95x1 R
115x1 L
115x1 R
Circus Bell
135x1 L (shouldering only and hold)
135x1 L
135x1 L
135x1 L
135x1 L
135x1 L
135x1 L
135x1 R (shouldering only and hold)
135x1 R
135x1 R
135x1 R
135x1 R
135x1 R
135x1 R

Safety Squat Bar Squats w/ bands (3 second negatives)
No Bands
65x3
Added Bands (+15lbs bottom/+70lbs top)
65x3
115x3
155x3
205x3
245x3
245x3
245x3
245x3
245x3

Seated Arm-Over-Arm Exer-genie Pulls (2” rope, tire)
3x60’ in 22.23 seconds
3x60’ in 16.65 seconds
6x60’ in 21.67 seconds

Backward Sled Drags (concrete)
280x100’ in 30.32 seconds
325x100’ in 33.99 seconds
370x100’ in 36.89 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: Still training. Feeling like 1/3 of it being for the next show and the other 2/3 for the show next Saturday. I had meant to get things packed and ready to go in the morning but I felt tired and I was still figuring things out with the new phone and such the day before. Probably should’ve done that though. Turns out the stress of the new phone was too much for my computer to handle and the hard drive died. Thankfully all my training stuff is on an external hard drive so that was safe. But computer repair stores closed until Monday and I didn’t really want to deal with the hassle and stress of shopping for a new computer at this time. My parents had similar parts available as well as other options to tied things over so I figured I’d deal with that after training. Drive out took a little longer but I had left earlier (maybe because I couldn’t get distracted as much without a computer haha) so there was a good deal of people there. So on to training. This seemed like it would be a shorter workout and with a lot of people here, I figured I’d just set things up as I went in the event that someone needed to use something. Lateral step downs again to start things off. My knees were feeling pretty achy so I ended up doing a few more reps and an extra set with the lowest box height. This did seem to warm up the knees good. Plan was 24” box for 3x8 again. Borrowing from last week, I did a single at the top height to get it out of the way. This seems to be a good strategy to get used to that depth. Honestly might be the easiest these have been. Had to force myself to take a longer break rather than go again so soon. So that is encouraging. Especially since my quads had felt sore the previous two days. But perhaps also shows that the controlled concentrics are tougher than the controlled eccentrics when doing tempo work. Tosses back in again for this workout. Sandbag and told just to do 8x1 to keep these crisp for next week. I wasn’t told anything about rest so I did them EMOM style to get things moving quickly. No warm-ups as this weight is pretty light at this point. It was cool outside and windy and looked like maybe rain so I tried to get things setup and torn down quickly. Tosses were good. Never did end up raining. Then back inside for circus dumbbell work. Same as last time essentially. The plan was to do push presses with 77.5% for EMOM singles for 6 each side. But treat each side as its own EMOM. So this pretty much ended up being 5lbs heavier than last time. Just have to remind myself that 90lbs more isn’t impossible. Just very very difficult. Remind myself that even Jenkins started his Arnold prep for circus dumbbell this light and that I’m not using my contest style at this point. Like last session, it feels awkward at first but I seem to get better as the session goes on. I did change things a little. I started with the strong side first as opposed to the lesser side. I didn’t do an extra press with each side either. I was confident I could do it and didn’t need to test things out. I did a shoulder and hold of 10 seconds to get things ready. I also think I didn’t do an extra rep as I could tell my triceps were still feeling the Thursday session with those high reps and controlled negatives. I didn’t have any issues with the reps like I did last time in rushing and having it go out of position. I did however have the dumbbell bounce off the crash tire and land on my right foot and that smarted. Didn’t stop me and I knew it wasn’t a broken toe or anything, just mashed and bruising. I was kind of surprised that that there was some blood leaking through my sock when I took off my lifters for the next thing. But it was only a little so I wasn’t concerned. Next was squats with the ssb. Advised to do them at 50% with a 3ct negative each rep for 5x3 with bands. Bands were to be 10-15% of 1rm added. Bands situation seemed to work out just perfectly as it took 2 mini bands a side with how I anchored them and it was just under 15% at the top. One pair had been too light and I don’t think there were any monster minis so it would’ve been light bands and that would’ve been too much for sure. These seemed to be going pretty good. Knees still ache on squats but I don’t feel that worry on the knee nearly as much with the knee sleeves on. Next thing was arm-over-arm pull. I was to do 3 sets of RPE 6-7 and told not to spend so much time on setup. It was going to happen. I was going to try to do these with the Exer-genie this time as that would hopefully take less time as far as setup. I had bought a new one as I couldn’t locate my other one. Turns out it was locked in the office and I was able to get that earlier in the day since one of the owners was there. So I guess I got two of them now. I decided to use my new one since I figured it would be a fresh start. I have not had good experiences with this tool as it doesn’t seem to have a rhythm or reason with the tensions listed. The positive here I think is I finally figured things out on how to get it to do what I want it to do. Still a pain in the ass. As for the arm-over-arm setup, I learned from last time about needing to anchor the front with weight and I found a better way to keep the tire from deflating on me so that it mimics a heavier and sturdier tire. The things I ended up having to learn with the Exer-genie were to keep the line away from what I was pulling (angle it out) or it will get caught in the other line or whatever I’m pulling, make sure that the selector clicks (had that issue with second set) and that the drag from pulling something with the rope is exponentially tougher (trying to pull the rope with the line is near impossible without setting to zero). Still frustrating but hopefully I can use those lessons for better sessions in the future. First set was feeling pretty good. I felt I needed it a little more difficult and I had assumed the knob clicked for just one setting more but it was over 6 seconds faster. Went to check and it had swung back to the previous setting. That had been too easy. So increased it 3 notches and it was tougher but ended up being faster than the first run still. Good enough. It does give me ideas about some things when it comes to training. So then it was the last thing for the session. More sled drags. Plan here was 3 sets of 100’, 2-3 minutes rest and adding weight each set with the stipulation being that the top set had to be something that took between 30-45 seconds to complete. To be consistent, I decided to do this out on the loading dock area with the uneven concrete. If I did these on the turf, it is uphill one way. The loading dock goes up and down so it is pretty much the same coming and going, just different spots are tougher going one way versus the other. I didn’t do the treadmill warm-up this time as I did like 250’ or so of slow backwards drag with the empty sled to get it from the one end of the gym to where I wanted it for the session. I’m not super-fast with backwards drags so there was a possibility that my first set was going to be technically within the parameters of the top set time frame. I was initially going to do 100lbs jumps starting at 235lbs but reconsidered to do 90lbs jumps. I then talked myself into starting heavier and just doing 45lbs jumps. First set was just over 30 seconds (didn’t know until after I was finished). However, adding weight only slowed me down about 3 seconds each run so even the heaviest run was under 40 seconds even. Stretched out before driving home to cool off (I kept AC on max the entire drive home) and then figure out the computer crap.

July 8, 2021 – Week 17, Day 3

Mobility Prep
 
12” Log Incline Bench Presses w/ bands
No Bands
95x3
Added Bands (+17lbs bottom/+36lbs top)
95x3
125x3
155x3
185x3
185x3
185x3
185x3
185x3

Inverted Ring Rows
bwx5
bw+35x5
bw+70x10
bw+50x10
bw+50x10

Incline Dumbbell Triceps Extensions (3 seconds negatives)/Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Band Face Pulls
26’sx20/10’sx20/lbx20
26’sx20/10’sx20/lbx20

Stretching
 
Comments:  Not sure what that was all about the last session. Just a terrible mood swing that went into the following day. I was able to vent and get a release and it all went away. Very strange. Storms from the south finally making their way up here (always seem to be earlier than meteorologist predict) so it started raining in the afternoon. I had been too lazy to get ready to move my squat rack inside despite hearing the rumblings (I was expecting rain on Friday). Had to wait until there was some break in the torrential downpour and it was more just drizzle. Wiped down the squat rack and got things setup for the start of training. Mobility stuff for the lats, traps and scap. My legs were still sore from Tuesday. In fact, feeling twitchy in a lot of places. I also noticing I have bruises from stones that are still healing up on my legs and abdomen. I kept the fans off for the mobility stuff so that I could get warm. Movement prep stuff still good. For today, the session seemed to be short and intense at the start and then a lot of reps at the end. Starting things off was bands on the log press again. Same band tension as it has been this cycle. I was told to try and keep rest period to 60-90 seconds. I forgot about that and didn’t have a timer ready. Plan for the day was 185lbs for 5x3. I did my usual 30lbs jumps. I wasn’t expecting much. Had the usual shoulder aches at the start. Right elbow a little achy too. But once I got to the working weight, I had to keep checking to make sure I had the right weight on there and that the incline was right. Not because it was feeling too tough but because it was feeling way too easy. I did end up taking longer rests (reviewing video after the fact) with it closer to the 90-120 seconds range. Perhaps this felt uncharacteristically easy as I usually equate deload with easy and don’t have that same intensity I have when I treat it as serious. Like a mental and physical deload. Not to say that isn’t also the case with this training cycle. Just different and will have to trust the process and see how it goes on the day it matters. Ring rows after that. Last week had been just bodyweight for a deload to peak the press session earlier in the week so this was back to adding weights. I was a little surprised that the plan was to go heavier than two weeks prior. Just for one set but still. New weight always seems rough at the start on these rows. 70lbs didn’t really fit evenly with my rubber plates so I went with the iron so I wasn’t sure how they’d stay on my stomach once I started. I did two warm-up sets to prep. As expected, it felt heavy haha. Took 20lbs off for two more sets and these felt really comfortable. Last item of the day was essentially what I usually do all together as opposed to be separate. Triceps, shoulders and upper back as a triset. Advised to do RPE 6-7 and do 20 reps of each, going through it twice. A little tricky to figure things out here as far as what to do for what. I had idea for the laterals and face pulls since I usually do them higher reps any ways. Triceps with that many reps and the negatives not sure. My options would be either 10lbs or 40lbs if I went with fixed dumbbells. I figured way too heavy if doing 40’s and way too light for 10’s and I’d need them for the laterals as changing weights on the loadable dumbbells between exercises would take way too long. So that kind of sorted things out realizing that. Was definitely feeling the fatigue in the triceps on the second set. Felt good and a nice way to end the session. Put stuff away and ate a meatloaf before stretching.

July 6, 2021 – Week 17, Day 2

Mobility Prep
 
Deadlifts
135x5
185x3
225x2
275x1
315x1
365x1
405x1
Added Straps
455x1
500x1
455x1
455x1
455x1
455x1
455x1

Stiff-legged Deadlifts
135x3
185x3
225x3
275x3
315x3
Added Straps
365x8
365x8

Bulgarian Split Squats (3 second negatives)/Side Plank w/ Band Rows (2 second holds)
BSS only
bwx2/2
15’sx2/2
Both
40’sx10/10 – mmbx15/15
40’sx10/10 – mmbx15/15
40’sx10/10 – mmbx15/15

Seated Band Single Leg Hamstring Curls/Weighted Planks
abx20/20 – 100x30 seconds
abx31/31 – 100x30 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: I’m not sure what went on with me this day. I felt like I was ok as seen with training the day before. But I just was super irritable and it seems a bunch of little tiny things became enough for me to be super stressed out. Things that don’t need to be aired. The point being that I was ok starting to train and then got irritable right away. It was hot again and I was trying to keep my garage cool with everything closed and fans going. Deadlifts from the floor with the idea being to pull 500lbs for a single and then do 455lbs for 5 singles. Work on speed and thinking about how it would feel in a suit. I’m not sure what was going on with me. Raw floor pulls don’t seem to like me very much. I seem to just overthink it and screw it up. Working up stuff didn’t feel comfortable and good. Maybe too used to block pulls and suited pulls. Most I’ve pulled raw from the floor this year was 550lbs in January and I hurt my back doing that. Most I’ve pulled since that was 455lbs and that was just before I stopped training for a bit because it was feeling off and frustrating me to no end. Most I’ve pulled before today for this training cycle was 425lbs. Stuff felt slow and I didn’t feel powerful. This was 85% to 91% depending on how you look at it as far as my raw pull at this time. Dropped down to 455lbs for the singles after that. Trying to keep my cool and not freak out. Just had this feeling like my hamstrings weren’t there which I think sometimes happens when they are fatigued. Maybe. These were not giving me a feeling of confidence. I got so mad after my fourth pull with how it felt that I threw my belt against the wall. I think that little outburst did make me realize I wasn’t thinking and was just trying to pull with a narrow stance and not thinking about how I’ve been setting up with the raw block pulls in how I position my feet and legs in a way that I’m getting them involved in the lift to brace and break from the floor. Sides of the feet. That seemed to make that last pull feel tolerable but I was second guessing myself attempting it. Head was a mess. Hits kept coming and I wanted to just stop the workout, take a shower and go to bed without dinner. But I know that isn’t a healthy coping mechanism. And I’d be doing it to punish myself, not to feel better. We are so fragile at inopportune times. Next was stiff-legs. Plan was 2x8 at RPE 7. I figured that 365lbs would be the ticket with how these had felt previously. I was still in punishment mode so I didn’t put on straps until the working sets. I had to let off a few swears to get myself focused on what I was doing before each of the working sets. Trying to make these feel ok and not overdo it. After that was the assistance stuff. Two supersets. First being Bulgarian split squats paired with the side plank band rows. I may have done the split squats wrong as not sure if I was to keep doing the single offset ones or do them with the ssb or do what I did. I kind of didn’t care in the moment and only thinking about that after the fact. Split squats were no longer tempo, just accentuated negatives. No RPE given. I figured that I should be able to do twice the weight I was doing on the tempo ones but that ended up being too light. So probably the only bright spot for me was that I could do them with 40’s in each hand and that I didn’t feel so winded and tired that I had to take a really long break between sides like I had to with the tempo ones. But does show how effective they can be even with super light weight. The band rows were with the pauses as per usual and those felt fine. This combo wasn’t as taxing has it has been. Last pairing for the evening was leg curls with bands and weighted planks. Knew what to expect with the band leg curls but not planks. Haven’t done them in a bit. I’ve usually done them for minute hold as difficult to get more than a 45lbs plate on my back to do them. I like to get the weight lower on the body for added difficulty. It was a pain in the ass getting something somewhat challenging. Leg curls the first set was for just 20 and then for max. Surprised myself with getting over 30 reps on the max set. I was still feeling quite stressed and had a big dinner before stretching and cleaning up. Iced knees before bed. Hopefully the funk is gone tomorrow.

July 5, 2021 – Week 17, Day 1

Mobility Prep
 
Viking Presses
+45(75)x2
+91(110)x2
+136(143.5)x2
+181(177.5)x2
+226(211)x2
+271(245)x2
+316(278.5)x2
+360(311.5)x3 PR+44lbs
+306(271)x3
+306(271)x3

Viking Strict Presses w/ bands (+36lbs (+27lbs) bottom/+45lbs (+34lbs) top)
+101(117)x3
+151(155)x3
+201(192)x8
+201(192)x11 PR+10lbs & 1 rep

Chest Supported Barbell Rows (3 seconds hold on last rep)
135x3
185x3
Added Straps
225x3
265x10
265x10
265x10

Band Ring Push-ups (feet on ground)
No Bands
bwx5
Added Bands
mmbx5
lbx5
abx20
abx18

Prone Dumbbell Retractions/Single Arm Dumbbell Overhead Triceps Extensions w/ bands
10’sx15/19+mbx15/15
10’sx15/19+mbx15/15

Stretching
 
Comments: I don’t think I had mentally prepared for this workout. What I mean is that I had been under the assumption that this would be a routine deload week and had already expected it to be such like two weeks ahead of time. For the past 7yrs, I’ve had strength coaches that implemented deloads with the week before being minimal. From 2014-2016, it was essentially 2/3rds the intensity and the volume of the preceding week. At that had been done every four weeks. From 2017-2019 (when last competed) deload was done only for contest prep and was even more reduced with it being essentially 80% on press, 50% on squat or deadlift and then a conditioning workout that weekend. So assumptions from 7yrs. So imaging me my surprise when I saw that my last heavy day for overhead was today.  It reminds me of a comedy site article about Dock Ellis no-hitter on LSD in that the line-up he faced had the advantage of knowing what day it was and not being on enough acid to melt Jimi Hendrix’s guitar. I wasn’t but the desire to go into that deload mode was really strong. Last workout on Saturday whooped me good. Sunday I was feeling it still and Monday also. Holidays can get me out of my normal routine and that certainly happened. For instance, ended up having a dozen scrambled eggs with bacon tossed in for lunch and then entertaining a 6yr old with Dinosaur Bingo, Lincoln Logs and then a bunch of imaginary car battles. I almost took a nap on my parents’ couch before I told myself nope, you got to go do stuff. So despite a holiday off from work, I got started training as if I just got off work with the time in the day. I really needed the foam rolling. It was the most I’ve ever needed it for my upper back and it seemed to bring me to life haha. Split squat iso holds didn’t bother my knees nearly as much as I was expecting them to with running around after and away from small children. Other mobility prep was good. I think another thing was expecting intense workouts this week with the temperature going back up again (supposed to be cooler week of contest at least). So the pressing today was viking press. I guess I understand now why the secondary pressing day was a deload last week so that this would be pushed. Plan for the day was to work up in doubles to a top 3-5rm and then do two triples after that depending on what I hit. I didn’t feel like I could but I wanted to max out the setup with straight weight. It had been something I had been thinking about after that first session and I got 6 plates added. 7 plates is the utmost limit I have without adding bands or draping chains. I figured I’d do plate jumps and see how I feel. Despite some aches I felt at the start in my everything, I felt better and power was feeling good. Trying to do that press off the leg drive first rep. Not sure on the efficacy on it with the actual setup at contest. Another thing I wanted to test was see how knee sleeves felt as far as support on pressing. These seemed to be the least technical (in that not a worry about needing to clean implement from floor to shoulder). Honestly, not sure but perhaps due to it not being a large ROM like a squat it isn’t feeling like anything other than compression. When I setup to go for this big weight, the handle shifted and I panicked a little and stopped to retighten it to make sure it was secure. Plan was to leave 1RIR so I stopped at 3. Pleased with this (but could do better haha) as I didn’t expect the opportunity to give this a go during the cycle. Down sets was 15% less (ended up being what I did last week) since I went for the 3RM. These honestly didn’t feel that much different but looked a lot easier. I think shoulders just feel the fatigue from the heavier stuff. Not done with the viking press as then it was time to add on the bands and do strict presses. A little apprehensive since I got to loose with my bracing and aggravated my sciatica last time. But could also have been from running out of Nutra Disc at the time. But didn’t want a repeat. I wasn’t sure if I needed warm-ups or not but figured it was best to do some but not too light since this was the same pressing. Unlike last time, no multiset stuff. One rep set and then a max set. Rep set was definitely fatiguing. I was curious if I could get more or even match on the second set. I had not used the wrist wraps or knee sleeves that first set so that I felt like I had something in reserve. That set felt good and I felt like I had better control of my bracing. On to rows with the pauses again. Kind of. See, back to regular rows but told to hold at the end of the last rep but not to failure. I decided to do a 3 seconds hold. Felt easy warming up. It was not on the working sets. I think I didn’t think this was going to be too heavy as I had assumed I’d done this kind of weight before for these reps regular style. I had not, had gone with less reps and more weight. It was nice to get back to the regular rows. The holds were really tough. Middle set felt the best. Pesky mosquito was trying to get me when I was strapped to the bar. Push-ups with the rings and bands again. This time just two sets of max reps leaving 2RIR. It was at this point I started to get dinner ready and realized that I had forgotten to run my dishwasher before lunch like I had planned on doing. So DoorDash it was as I didn’t want to wait 2.5hrs for stuff to be cleaned. So with that settled, I ended up doing pretty well on the band push-ups. I was having some issues with the lighter band tensions but body seemed locked and loaded for the heavy stuff. Might have called it too soon that first set but right on for that last set. On to the last item of the night. The superset. Same as last week with two sets of 15 reps for each. I added another sneaky pound to the triceps. All that collars and fractional plates. Sometimes I do that out of boredom and make weight changes interesting on the lighter stuff. I hadn’t put on the fans in the garage for this as I forgot it was still pretty warm and muggy so I was a bit sweaty after this. And during this. Put everything away and ate dinner before stretching.

July 3, 2021 – Week 16, Day 4

Mobility Prep
 
Lateral Step Downs 
bwx3/3 (12”)
bwx3/3 (16”)
bwx3/3 (20”)
bwx1/1 (24”)
bwx10/10 (24”) 
bwx10/10 (24”)

Sandbag Tosses (15’)
30x1
35x1
40x1
45x1
50x1
55x0
55x0
55x0
50x1
50x1
50x1
50x0
40x1
40x1
40x1
40x1

Paused Safety Squat Bar Squats (3 seconds)
65x2
115x2
165x2
205x2
245x2
295x1
335x1
385x2
327x2
327x2
327x2

Husafell Carry/Duck Walk/Sled Drag Medleys
125x20’/252x20’/30 seconds reverse treadmill pushes
125x20’/252x20’/30 seconds reverse treadmill pushes 
125x40’/252x40’/295x40’ in 36.56 seconds
140x40’/289x40’/435x40’ in 40.91 seconds
155x40’/324x40’/545x40’ in 42.39 seconds

Atlas Stone Over Bar (50”, tacky)
230x1
290x1
375x1
425x1

Atlas Stone to Platform (51”, tacky)
375x6

Lying Leg Curls
90x6
145x12
145x12
145x12

Copenhagen Planks (ver 4)
bwx25/25 seconds
bwx25/25 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: Coming to the end of this.  Soon time to see if all the work and hours put in will translate to show time. Or game day. Or the arena. Whatever thing you think of when you have to compete. I kind of realized this week that this was essentially the last week and then it was show time. It seems too soon now. This year so far feels like a time compression but also like it has been so long. A different time. 5 months ago, I quit in the middle of a workout due to pain, frustration and depression and took off 10 days to figure things out and see if I wanted to even do this anymore. Tried my own thing for three weeks and again realized I have no idea what I’m doing. After that, I had no illusions of doing well and pretty much wrote off this year of competing and treating this more of a rebuilding. 5 weeks into a new training program with a new coach and I was feeling like I can do this and now I’m signed up for three shows this year. I feel good and people that I see at the strongman gym have commented on the changes they’ve seen in my musculature being a big difference from 2019 (really last time people saw me regularly) and early 2020. My mood has been loads better (other than that week with the knee and injury clinic haha) and family has noticed that too. So this was going to be the last day for the event work and with the essentially clean bill of health from result of the MRI (no tears, strains, fractures) I was allowed to push it. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t anxious or nervous. I had packed up stuff the night before as I figured that travel would stink with it being a holiday weekend. But it wasn’t. Actually might be a time PR getting out to the gym haha. I was nervous driving out there, thinking about training. It was about 20 degrees cooler this weekend so while I was still going to sweat, it seemed manageable. Same warm-ups and then on to the lateral step downs. Just indicated 2x10, no set height like last week. I figured I’d stick with 24” right now as last week that was a good bit tougher than I was expecting it to be. Knees weren’t as grumpy so I didn’t feel I needed to do more warm-ups with the lower heights. I did do a single at the working weight each side as I noticed that that first rep seemed to be the one that was toughest feeling for the depth and it was taking a bit out of me. Doing that as a warm-up seemed to help me on the other sets. Balance was a little off but strength was there. I do have the option to go higher but this feels good. Funny to see how much progress this has had. Again, left side is the lagging side. But no feeling of the knee wanting to go on me. So this then went to sandbag tosses. The setup was kind of already setup as another person there had set it up to train for keg tosses they have in a contest in September but have been doing sandbag due to lack of kegs (I brought two of mine but not worth it to use at the moment). His contest height is much lower than mine (I think novice) so had to adjust it. Then it started raining (there was a chance but it wasn’t supposed to until much later) but thankfully it did stop. This was my last week to really push the sandbag tosses and I wanted to see if I could get above 50lbs. I wasn’t willing to wait for the sun to come out and dry up the rain water and puddles (it did eventually) so I got a bucket and mop and mopped up the rain. Can’t be slipping and having sandbags getting wet. So plan for today was to hit a max and try to hit 1-3 at that weight and then drop 5-15lbs off that and do 3 more singles. Contest is max toss with 3 attempts but miss and done. Some promoters interpret “last man standing” differently and I had been hoping it would be keep going until miss and not just three attempts. That was confirmed just recently. So I decided to go up in 5lbs jumps. My trajectory with 45lbs and 50lbs weren’t great but I wanted to try 55lbs to at least get a feel for it as 5lbs is a big jump on sandbag toss. First attempt at 55lbs was laughable. I didn’t even get high enough to hit the bar. I wasn’t letting it frustrate me. I figured I’d give it one more shot to see if I would “wake up” as I did last time with sandbag toss where I was able to get the 50lbs to easily clear on some tosses when it all lined up. I did but that only meant that I was able to get 55lbs to hit the bar. I checked to see if I had gotten it high enough that it was hitting it on the up or down. I tried on more time and that wasn’t close like the first one. So then I dropped it back down to 50lbs. I had only planned to do a single here but my trajectory was off again and it took the arm off. I didn’t want to end it like that. Did it again and it was better and then once more and it was best toss of the day with weight above 40lbs. Got greedy going for another (lost track of how many I did) and that was not a good one. Dropped down to 40lbs (I had made the 45lbs the 55lbs) for the other tosses. These weren’t my best and I shut it down once I realized this wasn’t reinforcing good form. Sandbag can be hit or miss but I’m glad that 50lbs has become somewhat consistent. Still would’ve liked to get 55lbs over but it will get there some day. Then on to gym work for a moment. SSB pause squats. Goal was to work up to a top double and then do some lighter down sets. Knees were feeling a little achy. But no feeling of it giving out on me. Knee sleeves seem to be a thing now for squatting for me. Plan here was not a max but leave like 2 reps in the tank. I think I did that. Hard to guess when doing paused work and as far as basing percentages off a paused max. The set before honestly didn’t feel great so I wasn’t thinking adding 50lbs on to that was going to be the right difficulty level. An overreach. But it turns out I got it just right. The pause set down sets never feel as easy as they end up looking. This was a bigger drop down in weight from last time I did these. I’m not actually sure where the time was going at this point but it seemed like I had already been training for close to 4hrs at this point. It wasn’t like I was taking my time. My lower back just felt so tight going into the next thing. Not what I wanted haha. Medley work was next. I felt it was important with getting the ok on the MRI to do this. Got the specifics on it this week too. The intent had been to do some more training of this but with the knee, that got sidelined for a few weeks in training. As I thought, the stuff was lighter than what I was doing. Uncertain what the drag weight will be or feel like as only says sled plus weight and it isn’t that much. I figured the easiest thing to do for this was use the light husafell carry. The block might make it closer but that thing that is at the gym requires power tools to open and close securely and has sharp edges. I ain’t about that. The light husafell I can just toss in bumper plates. Duck walk is duck walk but I elected to not use the 100lbers on it as I’d be going lighter and I wanted it to fill up more so that it was closer to how the plates would be height wise for when it hits my legs. Sled drag I rigged up the frame carry so that hade more surface area and hopefully make it tough. So the things I needed to see was how I needed to move to control the implements (changed from loading in sled to placing on rubber mat) and see how fatigue goes from each leg. I did short warm-ups before going. The plan was to do three runs, 70%,80% and 90% of contest. The sled was a guess. I feel these went ok. I think I picked up on things like shoving the duck walk forward at the end to get it on the space and be able to use that movement to push off to get to the side step to get to the sled handles. I think the sled was too light on the first run but corrected for the other runs. Then it was time for stones. This was what I was nervous about. What I was anxious about. This is what I’m good at but I get worried when I start to push things. My hamstrings were tight and so was lower back. My right pec was feeling tight earlier after the sandbag toss but that seemed to have gone away by this point. Just had irrational worry that I’d tear my biceps and be injured and depressed after everything had been good. I’m realizing I’m still having trust issues with my own body. I notice this and I fight through it. So the plan for this had been to contest height and work up to a single above contest weight and then rest and do an AMRAP with contest weight. The suggested single to work up to was 400lbs. Problem, don’t have that weight, despite the best efforts of myself and Brian to get one. Stones go from 345lbs to 365lbs (22”) and 375lbs to 420lbs. 420lbs, 425lbs, 430lbs, 440lbs, 455lbs and 490lbs. So I’d need go a bit heavier if doing that route. 400lbs not a problem, even at not my best. Not sure above that. I guess part of it was that Heaviest I’ve gone on stones since 2019 is 345lbs. The first two stones, I just tossed over with contempt. The plan had been to then do the 365lbs stone but I realized it was in the corner and that would require me to move over a ton of atlas stones to get to it. So I decided I’d do the 375lbs stone for a single. Probably a good idea to do that anyways to get a feel for it since it has been a few years. I’ve never done more than a single (or attempted more than a single) with it. It is egg-shaped and is sticky but also gritty at the same time. I found on that attempt that I couldn’t do the lap and go style I had been doing with the other stones right away. Didn’t fail here so that was good. But it didn’t feel great. So the heavy single. Looking at the stones, I decided to go with the 425lbs 21” diameter one. I was trying to not use the 22” since that isn’t what I’ll be lifting at the contest and it takes a little bit of practice to get used to them (not a lot, but not going in cold). Setup the stone and went for it. Only part that was difficult in any way was the extension. It was easy pick and rolled right into my lap. Didn’t show any real emotion on this. Trying not to as this should be routine. This essentially 93% of my max (I’ve done a verified 457lbs to above this height, the 505lbs was to only 44”). Considering that closest to this was 80lbs under this whole training cycle, it’s a good sign. So that stress done but still had another. Rep sets for maxes get me too. Now I had thought I had someone here to assist but I didn’t. If I had known that, I’d have been using the platform from the start. Plan was AMRAP for 60 but have it go for 75-90 seconds so as to let me do a 1-2 more reps outside of that. Advised to end on a positive. In my head, I had told myself I needed to get 6 reps total to be the person I was from almost a decade ago. I say this as I had done 390lbs for 5 at 2012 Nationals and 350lbs for 6 reps in 2013 at Maryland’s Strongest Man. I had also done 360lbs for 5 reps on the stone of steel at Nationals in 2017. So doing 5 reps wasn’t going to be good enough. But with how things felt, I had resigned to it being a double or triple. But I had other plans. My technique on the stone that I’ve been working for the fast lap and load that didn’t work warming up was working now. But my lucky stone shoes finally came apart so I had to keep adjusting my foot to keep it on stable footing and secure my grip. I got 5 reps fairly casual in 60 seconds and that stone bounced a little off center so I needed to let it settle and reposition it. I had decided I’d do just the one extra rep. A bit tough but got it. At this point, I considered this me surviving the workout as the rest of it was just hamstrings and Copenhagen planks. I cleaned up and got to work on those. Leg curls felt good and hamstrings feel stronger every time. Copenhagen planks had less knee irritation on the one side. I’m not sure if it has to do with exercise selection or what as it seems like the even weeks it feel better compared to the odd weeks. Timer says I had been lifting for 5hrs and 45 minutes by the time I finished. Certainly the longest of this training cycle but not sure if of all time as I haven’t always timed them for the longest time and the app times them most of the time. I needed to stretch a good bit before driving home to clean up, eat and ice knees before bed.

July 1, 2021 – Week 16, Day 3

Mobility Prep
 
12” Log Incline Bench Presses
105x3
135x3
165x3
195x3
225x5
225x5
225x5

Inverted Ring Rows
bwx15
bwx15
bwx15

Chest Supported Lateral Dumbbell Raises/Incline Bench Dumbbell Rear Delt Rows
10’x15/15’sx15
10’x15/15’sx15
10’x15/15’sx15

Band Triceps Pressdowns
lbx10
abx20
abx20
abx20

Stretching
 
Comments:  Well thankfully the heat didn’t last. But that brings the rain. Off and on. Brought the squat rack into the garage between bouts of rain. Didn’t really rain that much after that but better safe than sorry. This was to be a deloaded workout. So not seeing it as super serious. Kind of glad that the throttle wasn’t at max for this one as I was stiff and sore. Upper back and neck and hamstrings. I also noticed I got bruises on my legs, hips and chest from the suit work with it being at max tightness. Cool enough and the workout wasn’t going to be that intense that I didn’t need the fans going. Mobility stuff for the lats, traps and scap. Seemed to continue from last week in that scapula feels pretty good. Log was just to work up to 225lbs for 3x5. So triples taking 30lbs jumps to get there.  Little achy in the shoulders but honestly, these felt quite easy and I was only slightly miffed that I wasn’t pushing it today. Each set felt better than the last one. Could’ve done these sets all day. Ring rows after that. No weights this time. Just bodyweight and told to treat them like I did the last set for last week with the strong contraction. So a slight hold but not enough to say I’m doing a full second or two on each rep. But it gets fatiguing. Felt pretty tough to be honest. Could feel my arms getting fatigued holding me up for so long. The rest of the workout was “for the pump”. Told to do high reps with low RPE for a few sets. First part of it was a superset of new shoulder exercises. Chest supported laterals and rear delt rows. I was a little concerned when I got these to do as I wasn’t sure how to set them up initially as the example had the guy do the laterals using a bench that went up to his chin. My bench doesn’t even come up to my sternum upright. But I figured it out and it looks just as goofy. I’m not entirely sure I did the rear delt rows right. I used the kettlebells for them. First round was easy but the fatigue was building up pretty fast since I was doing them back to back with little rest (only break I had was the first set when I switched out for heavier kettlebells when the 10’s were too light). Last item was band work for triceps. I initially went with the light band but it was ridiculously easy. Last time I did these I had a slight pause each rep. No restriction this time. Hell, the average bands seemed borderline too easy for me. Actually got this workout done and everything put away before my timer went off on the roast for dinner. Ate dinner and then stretched.