14” Jack Stand Pulls (straps) 335x2 385x2 425x5 425x5 425x5
Heel Elevated Spanish Squats (3 second eccentrics, average band) bw+15x12 bw+15x12 bw+15x12
Band Assisted Nordic Curls/Ab Wheel lbx8/bwx8 lbx8/bwx8 lbx8/bwx8
Quad Fallbacks (17” target) bwx8 bwx8 bwx8
Stretching
Comments: More training. I was a bit surprised with some of the things listed for today and others not too eyebrow raising. Hamstrings were still feeling those Nordic curl negatives. With the plan for today was to just get through things at the pace I could. Start of the session being movement prep. I wasn’t expecting this to be as tough as it ended up being. The band marches were nothing but the pairing of planks with dead bugs proved to be quite a core burner. I think at this point that my lower back has finally calmed down from what it was feeling from two weeks ago. Then on to the deadlift. I was expecting it to be suited work this week but I wasn’t expecting things to be this heavy. Plan here being doubles up to 405lbs and then put on suit after that for singles up to a top triple. Stipulation was to control the negatives on work up singles and then on subsequent down sets. I was torn between doing plate jumps and smaller jumps working up to the suited stuff. I figured on bigger jumps to kind of move things along after my core got roasted at the start. Adjusted the suit back to how I have it for training. It felt ridiculously tight on that first single. Top double was 570lbs. Essentially 50lbs more than what I did at the start of the suit work. This would be technically a PR for me as it would be an extra rep or 20lbs increase on my previous triple best. Reps felt good until the third one as that one felt like I was slowing down a good bit. Another rep there, maybe a really ugly two. Down sets with 50lbs less. This was going to be the really hard work. Advised to do them with controlled negatives. First set actually felt comfortable besides the suit. Second and third got tough. Rep, take a big breath and brace for the next rep. Really worked the lower back. Next thing was to do block pulls. Lower weight, no suit and back to 14” height. More to get used to this height since August contest has this height. These felt really easy. These were very comfortable. So the deadlift portion of the workout was done and it was on the to the goofy shit. So next was Spanish squats. I’ve heard of these and I tried them before when I was trying to do stuff in January and February when my right knee was a mess. But they weren’t being done right. I wasn’t staying upright. And that is difficult to do. So for this workout, plan was to do 3ct negatives with heels elevated for 3x12. I found that I needed quite a bit of band tension to anchor the lower legs in a way to keep shins perpendicular and stay upright. As well as a kettlebell for counterbalance. This was a bit of trial and error in securing all the anchor points. First set I realized that I needed to anchor the heel board. Second set realized I needed to add more weight to the anchor system for the band as it was moving it and I had to take a brief break to adjust it. Third set I got a little off balance at the beginning. This definitely has a learning curve to it and these were quite challenging. I could feel the knees getting pulled with the balance and distraction band. So the next part of the workout was a superset. First part being band assisted Nordic leg curls and then ab wheel. 3x8 for each. Ab wheel was not going to be a problem. I know how to do these and I’ve done several reps of these in the past. The difficult part was going to be the nords. First part was figuring out how to anchor myself. Required my jack stands, yoke and about 1000lbs. So that worked out. Then needed to figure out band tension. After trying a few combinations, eventually settled on using light bands that allowed me to get down and up. In the past, I’ve been so weak in the hamstrings that the assistance I need to even get down is so much that I have to actually fight it to get it to go down. Ab wheel was quite easy. Nords were really tough and my hamstrings were just getting ripped apart. Hamstrings will have to adapt to survive this cycle with how things are going. Last item for the session was more of the quad fallbacks. Same as last week with it being 3x8. Knowing what to expect made me a bit more prepared for this as far as the discomfort. First set felt similar to how it had felt last week. Second set actually felt really good. Third set was about a mix between the first and second. I expect that these will be progressing from here. Cooked up dinner and put all the weights away before eating. Stretched and then iced my knees before bed.
Paused Band Face Pulls (3 seconds) lbx10 lbx10 lbx10
Half Kneeling Single Arm Band Lat Pulldowns/Hand Elevated Close Grip Push-ups (18”) sbx15/15 – bwx40 sbx15/15 – bwx20 sbx15/15 – bwx12
Stretching
Comments: Some good news was figured out the electrical issue with the bathrooms so that is all good. Not so good was the one grocery store being out of eye rounds and chuck roasts so had to alter planned meals for this week slightly. Hamstrings really sore from those Nordic curl negatives still. I have some anxiety thinking about the October show. Not sure if they are rational concerns or not. Partly thinking I’m not at that level and partly that the pro stuff might not happen as only this show so far of the 6 announced have the minimum amount of competitors to have it have the invite. The one I’m signed up for is the only one meeting that criteria at the moment. Only two of the other ones have close to the number needed (two have one person, two have five people and another has none). So I do wonder if I should drop down to regular comp or not. May have to think on it a little. But see how things go. So on to training. Foam rolling was definitely needed and it usually is. But this time a lot despite not feeling that sore in the upper back. And usually the second time through it is only a little bit needed but I had a lot of crunching and what not. It was paired this time with the PNF stretching again. I swapped out the kettlebells for my light dumbbell handles so as to give myself more ROM as I was hitting the ground with the kettlebells before I even got to ten reps. Other mobility prep was just wall slides and the push-up planks. So this workout was quite a bit different from any of the other upper body sessions. To start things off, it was circus dumbbell work. But not heavy. Not even stuff that would probably register on RPE scale. Literally said RPE 3 haha. I was told to empty dumbbell handle (between 10-30lbs) and work the positions with holds and pauses to get that neural pathway going. I’ve done push press the past two dumbbell sessions and now to get back to my contest style jerk. These were awkward. The weight was so light and it was kind of tricky to think of how I did things with not having the weight kind of adjust the body. My first set on these wasn’t great as far as getting the position and drive right (though I feel my press and lockouts were good). I feel I got a bit better as I went. I may have over exaggerated the lockout to get feet together but I figure I should since that was an error in my training for Nats in 2015 that cost me a rep. On to axle pressing after that. This time with bands. Other than the viking presses last cycle, I think I’ve only ever done strict press against band tension once before about a decade ago. It always seems to be with me either seated or doing them with a jerk or push press. Setup for this was to do same as the squats on Saturday; 60% with 10-15% added to that in bands for 5x3 with 60-90 seconds rest. A bit tricky with the bands with how tall I am. The mini bands alone were 30lbs just at my chest and I knew they’d be over 40lbs at the top (I think they’ve been 50lbs or more for me in the past) so this meant using the micro bands. Didn’t feel like anything at all really until I got to 96lbs on the bar. Then it felt noticeable. These actually were a little weird as they felt rough on the shoulders and I didn’t think I was moving the weight that fast but video says otherwise. I got a little off balance on the second working set. Next up was a surprise for sure. Floor pressing. It has been a while. I thought it was maybe 6 months but turns out almost a year to the day that I last did any kind of prone pressing. Since then, it has been push-ups and accessory work for shoulders and triceps this whole time. I had been using sawhorses for these but that seemed not so safe anymore after the banging and clanging I’ve done on them during this home gym training. So plan here was to do 3x6 at RPE 7, working up in triples. I was to use the bar that I felt would be easiest on my shoulders. Well didn’t really have much choice as it was pretty much either barbell or axle as I doubt log was really an option with the decreased ROM and that it would be an even bigger pain in the ass to unrack that. I was expecting to use about 300lbs despite not doing any kind of prone pressing for a year. All the parts have been getting worked so this would be more of a form and technique issue I figured. Triceps were feeling a little sore but I was feeling pretty strong. I was getting an ache in my right shoulder which I guess I haven’t really noticed since no prone pressing. I was feeling pretty good and I may have gone a bit heavier than planned here. I just liked the quarter-plate jumps. These sets I don’t feel were RPE 7. Maybe the first one but they felt closer to 7.5-8 and maybe 8.5 at the most. Hard to tell as bar speed looks good even as I got tired. It was more lockout on the last rep of the second and third set that ended up being tough so hard to say what I could do. At least another rep for sure and two would be pushing it and be super ugly and grindy I think. Well survived that (I think) and on to some less stressful exercises. Into the garage for a spell. Been a little bit since the dumbbell y raises showed up. No superset pairing this time around but longer hold at concentric and adding an accentuated negative to it. Ugh, so a little difficult to figure out so I just started at empty handles and that seemed ok but I ended up taking longer rests than planned (had to order replacement dinner) so I decided I’d increase the weight 2lbs a set. Last set was quite challenging but still I think in the effort range. Back outside after that for some more band work. Face pulls with pauses. I had felt that monster minis were too light last time when doing superset and having it be more reps with a shorter pause. So I figured I could do the light bands. I must say that having to hold and brace that long definitely takes me off balance a little as I think I’m so used to this tension only being for a brief moment of max contraction but it felt like it wanted to pull my forward if I wasn’t careful. I feel like I really worked on the holds and external rotation on these. So last item of the night was a superset. Wasn’t going to get away with having a workout not having a pairing. So this was lat pulldowns and the hand elevated push-ups. Last week had been my first experience with the push-ups and to have them be close grip. Pulldowns the same reps each set but push-ups for max with 3RIR. I was surprised how much tension I needed for the pulldowns since I’ve only ever used the light bands for movement prep with brief holds. I’m tall so I’m not sure if I can really get the preferred angle on these. The push-ups felt way too easy at the start as I got 40 and stopped as I felt I was slowing down, not that I had reach my limit. However, unlike the lat pulldowns, my push-ups weren’t recovering as quickly with my back to back style. Reps dropped off dramatically (as noticed with doing these like this the week before contest last cycle) on the second set and were at least somewhat close to numbers I got the second set with the third set. Put stuff away before housing 4 steak recovery burritos for dinner and then stretching.
Nordic Leg Curl Negatives (5 seconds) bwx4 bwx4 bwx4
Keg Tosses (15’, from 10’ away running up to keg) 25x1 25x1 25x1 25x1 25x1 25x1 25x1 25x1 25x1 25x1
Safety Squat Bar Dead Squats w/ bands (+20lbs bottom/+70lbs top) 65x3 115x3 155x3 205x3 245x3 295x3 295x3 295x3 295x3 295x3
Yoke (beltless) Casual Pace 210x50’ 210x50’ Normal 210x50’ 300x50’ 400x25’ 450x25’ 500x50’ in 9.31 seconds 520x50’ in 9.78 seconds 540x50’ in 9.43 seconds 560x50’ in 10.30 seconds
Power Keg Loads Over Bar (56”) 144x2 194x2 244x2 294x2 344x2 384x2 346x1 346x1 346x1 346x1 346x1 346x1 346x1 346x1
Comments: Out to train at the gym again. All gas, no brakes I guess. Would be a test of sorts I think to see if I recover quicker from competition under the new training and the post and pre contest training. Although it could be considered a light contest that I did so may not be the best gauge of things. I got a bit of a later start to my day as packed up to train in the morning rather than the night before and I had to fill up the car. Traffic really bad for no reason going through the highway near the city on the way there so I ended up getting there later than planned too. As far as what I had in store for myself today, it seemed to be prep for the October show with event work for the August show. Movement prep stuff had split squats and brought in hip airplanes that I haven’t done in several years. My balance on those is crap so I do need a slight balance assistance on those. Trying to control and hold positions. Getting blood flow to the small of my lower back where the disc bulge is. Can be hard to tell if it is helping or irritating. So start of the training was a little shocking. Nordic leg curl negatives. These are freaking brutal and I’ve had my hamstrings just straight up cramp up on me initiating the movement in the past. So usually done later in the session but this they were first this time. I had to get creative with setup as I didn’t want to bother anyone to hold my ankles (and no one there was going to weigh enough to counterbalance my mass at the time) so I ended up using the inverse leg curl machine for my setup. Plan being to wake up the hamstrings. This certainly did. And man were these tough. Next up was keg toss. Still singles. Didn’t realize that it had been over a month since I last did these. Double the reps so 10 tosses this time. Last time it had been a light to moderate keg and it said moderate this time. So I added 2lbs of a sand to the keg to get a nice 25lbs. Having watched video from the last time they had this event at the contest in August, I saw they had them run up to the keg for the toss. I was initially only going to do it for the first and sixth as it is a five keg series but I figured with the compressed timeline (6 weeks) that I should practice for all of them to get that ingrained now. Lot of activity in the parking lot so I had to really target my tosses (biker gang back and some people trying to leave the parking lot). The bikers seem to think keg toss is way more badass than sandbag toss from the reactions I heard before they left haha. Though regardless of what I toss, they get bored after I do it like 4 times. The unyielding quality of the metal for grip definitely makes these harder on the fingers compared to sandbag tosses. Only really notice when the volume goes up. Last toss I mimicked what I would do if I was going for the next keg. Mostly to see how I would do and because it was the last one so I didn’t have to worry about chasing down the keg in the EMOM time limit. I definitely think that needs work for me to get my breathing right to go fast. So back inside for squats. Squats with the ssb. With bands. And done as rack squats. Advised to do them at 60% with for 5x3 with bands that were 10-15% of 1rm added. Rack height I was told to lower to parallel or so so I dropped the pin height 1 from what I’ve been doing the rack squats from. Just using the same max weight for these to get the percentages so the band setup was the same as what I did the week before the contest. Bands slightly more tension at the bottom with it being not as deep as when I go into a full squat. I was told to keep rest 60-90 seconds so I set timer to go off every 90 seconds. Told to keep solid brace and move fast. Initially, my left knee wasn’t liking to get under the weight so I was a little nervous that this ROM without knee sleeves wasn’t good but that seemed to go away as I got ready. Initially thinking that maybe this weight would be too much but I guess once I said to myself this was my working weight, the weight felt pretty darn easy, only having it feel like something on the first rep of the fourth set when I mistimed the timer. These went pretty good. Then it was on to a test of sorts with yoke. Until fairly recently, I never had a problem with yoke despite having reasons to have problems. I literally fractured a vertebra doing yoke a decade ago. And usually with how contests go, I tend to have issues with getting warmed up for yoke since I’m generally a lot taller than other competitors. There have been instances where my only warm-up has been the empty implement. I think out of all the times I’ve done yoke in contest, I’ve only been happy with how I’ve done twice and both of those times were in 2018. After the pain relapse end of 2018, yoke hasn’t been the same really. I’ve gone up to 800lbs maybe once since then. February 2021 was the last time I did yoke and I just gave up on it as I had to psyche myself up with belt to move 500lbs when I’ve done over 1000lbs a handful of times. So haven’t touched it over than to move 90-210lbs around to use it for setups for other events in over five months. And I got a contest coming up in early October for 1000lbs as part of a medley. So for today, this was tipping the toes back in to the very deep pool. I was advised to do 4x50’ beltless with it being no more than RPE 6 and not having to go full speed if I didn’t feel comfortable. In my head, I wanted at least 500lbs so I could confront myself from earlier this year. Still have concerns with lower back stuff. I started things off with doing casual pace with it empty. Just taking a walk. Then added some speed to it. Oof, hamstrings feeling that shift in gears. Not quite top speed. I then switched to half distance before getting to the goal weight of 500lbs. Now as far as what I was looking at, I was hoping to at minimum hit 60% of my all-time best beltless yoke of 800lbs. Had to go way back to figure this as I tended to have my rehband belt on and still refer to it as beltless when really it isn’t. My best with rehband belt only was 935lbs (what I broke my back on haha). The stretch goal was 70% of that (560lbs) but I’d settle for 500lbs. Comfortable but not terribly fast. It felt too easy so I said screw it, I’ll add 20lbs a set. I ended up getting stuck in a conversation with someone at the gym after my third run so I did cooldown a bit before going. My times compared to my belted runs are about 3 seconds slower. I have to wonder on strategy as I won’t be fast if I get 1000lbs at contest with the short time frame so should focus be on a solid start and steady pace or keep trying to go faster right off the bat? On to more event work with power keg loads. August contest has max keg load (max of 455lbs) and I should be good on that. I think. Thing is despite being good at stones, I’ve never really had to push much with keg and haven’t had to do more than 350lbs in competition. Plan for today was to work up to a smooth double (RPE 7-7.5) and then drop of 10% and do 8x1 EMOM. As with stones for last training cycle prep, I had the height 4” above contest. No one has used the power keg at the strongman gym for a long time as it was covered in dust, cobwebs and had one decent sized dead spider and two large dust bunnies inside. Weights are estimates (144lbs empty with spacers) as the battery powered scale was dead and the other scale is a pain in the ass to get out and it only goes up to 350lbs which I was certain I’d be going over based off how I felt I should do. I took big jumps. Mostly I think because it takes time to load and secure the power keg. We have kegs that go up in 25lbs jumps to 325lbs but the contest is using a power keg for all the attempts and it just feels different to me. I didn’t take the weight seriously on my second to last double. I had tried to quick lap and go and missed on the second rep. This seemed to have been good tactic for me but I guess there is a limit when it comes to strength that it doesn’t work. The keg down flat is a good bit tougher for the next load at these weights. So I did only a 40lbs jump for the last double. First one was easy, second rep not so much. So I may have gone a little above the effort I was supposed to. The tie breaker for the show if multiple people get the 455lbs is time which could be a problem for me as I take it slow to not tear my biceps on the pick with these heavy weights. The EMOM the weight was just a bother to lap it but the loading was so easy. I reset the keg each rep. Tape saved my shins. Last item for the day was a super set of step ups with the ssb and dumbbell side bends. I was told to do holds and use a fat gripz if I wanted to on those. I was hoping to go heavier on the step ups but reconsidered with how my knees were feeling. Box height I was told to do it from 14-12”. Trying the 14” was just not happening as it seemed like a weak spot for my knee and it was a stilted extension of the knee with just the bar. Goal was to do RPE 7 for both and that wasn’t happening at 14” so I went with 12” and that was a ton more manageable. I wasn’t certain what fatigue would be like with the number of reps, not doing step-ups in a long ass time and having the obliques fatigued with the side bends for the following sets. In hindsight, I could’ve gone heavier on the step-ups. The dumbbell weight was perfect assuming grip work was the goal as that was getting toasty by the end. Still decent oblique work but definitely could’ve done a lot more weight if not using a fat gripz. Stretched and packed up my big circus dumbbell to start training at home during the week with it and relaxed the rest of the evening.
Paused Band Face Pulls (2 seconds)/Paused Band Lateral Raises (2 seconds) mmbx15/µb’sx15 mmbx15/µb’sx15 mmbx15/µb’sx15
Rolling Dumbbell Extensions 40’sx25 56’sx20 70’sx15
Stretching
Comments: Things picking up again. My sciatica stuff was acting up on me during the day and it seems to not have a rhyme or reason as I did just walking and soft tissue work the day before. And it wasn’t consistent. Just have to be mindful and watch it and just do what I can to keep on keeping on. Lost electricity for the two bathrooms in my house. Not sure what happened there. Have to wait a little to see if it is fixable without getting an electrician to look at it. Oh well. At least some good news was bill for MRI was a lot less than I was expecting. Last one had been over $1,200 out of pocket and this one was about $1k less so that was nice to not have to fork over nearly as much as I was expecting. So on to training. Foam rolling was definitely needed and it usually is. It was paired this time with the PNF stretching I did right before competing with the kettlebells. Did them for 3ct this time and honestly, I feel I got full ROM sooner this time around. Other mobility prep was good. Usual suspects with the wall slides and TKE step-ups but new one of plank in push-up position. That was interesting. Then on to the weights. Started things off with paused axle push presses. Light but advised beltless and to do them EMOM style. Other than circus dumbbell, I think this is the only time I’ve done EMOM for axle while training under Drew. Felt good but my anterior deltoids were feeling fatigue about halfway through. I could tell my shoulder girdle might still be feeling the contest as I didn’t want to keep the axle in the front rack position like I do for push press and strict presses on a set and I noticed this and forced myself to keep it there after that. Light stuff but shoulders were feeling cooked. So I was a little leery about the strict presses being next. I was advised to do 2x5 but work up in doubles. I figured that it made sense to strip down to the bar and work up to get my form down as strict press with axle is a bit different from viking press strict style. Feeling a little heavy on the shoulders as I got up in weight. As seems to be the case, I seem to be unstable on strict press despite the weight seeming to move well and I got off balance on the last rep of the first set. I was so annoyed by that. No issues on the second set. Strict presses weren’t done see. Next was a strict press but with a pause at forehead height. I wasn’t sure how these would go as my shoulders were feeling the presses and I wondered if I’d even have the control to hold and resume since I get a lot of drive off the shoulders and then lockout. So I was pleased that the weight felt light off the shoulders after the other strict pressing. Definitely finding that spot for the pause that first set was a bit tough and man did that last rep get tough. Second set I wasn’t sure I’d do well with fatigue but knowing what to expect I think made that set better than the first as far as control and ease. So after that, a break in the shoulder action. Pull-ups. Like real pull-ups. It has been since 2016 that I last did a pull-up. It has been pulldowns and rack chins since. So I’m like 20lbs heavier then when I last did pull-ups. And even then, there were times that my biceps hated me when I did them. After I had pulled my left biceps I had to modify back then. Now I have both biceps with pulls. Right one more so. So I really had no idea what to expect here. Honestly something as low as 3 reps was possible. Plan was to do four sets of max reps leaving a rep in the tank. I started normal style with my grip but my biceps didn’t like that so switched to thumbless grip. First set was slow going but I got eight so a bit surprised I could do that many (I think most I’ve ever done was 22 back when I was in high school and wrestling and at least 100lbs lighter haha). But I figured that I’d see a drop off in reps as that has usually been the case as my biceps fatigue fast. But I didn’t. If anything, I felt better that second set. I think that doing back work that actually had me focus on my lats has gotten me to actually use them in pull-ups again. I maybe called them a rep short on the second and third set but I was getting a little more forceful and my setup isn’t exactly anchored down with anything besides weight plates less than what I weight haha. Last set I dropped a rep and that one was finally I think at the right level of effort. So then on to a new superset. Pairing of rear delt/upper back and lateral raises seems to be a constant. So for this one, it was all bands and doing them with pauses. Pauses and any kind of tempo with bands makes them so much harder to do. Face pulls I kind of know what I’m about on them but never have I tried bands on lateral raises. I ended up using my lightest band tension for them with the pauses. I like them for how they felt and how tough they were without stressing the joints a ton. But man were they tough. I maybe could’ve done a little more band tension on the face pulls but I wasn’t sure how the laterals would affect things with the fatigue building. I had to take a slight breather to get the burn out of my shoulders to finish the last set of laterals. Shoulders felt pumped to bursting haha. So I took a little break putting stuff away to get my shoulders to calm down for the last exercise. Triceps and dumbbells. A rare opportunity where I could not worry about the slow and steady. Rolling dumbbell extensions. Plan here was doing a set of 25, 20 and then 15 with more weight each set so that last set was about 2-3 RIR. I figured that I could do big jumps to get there with past experience. Difficulty increased each set. 70’s were tough as I’m not used to shouldering the dumbbells this heavy as of late and it kind of got me off balance at the start but I recovered. Finished up putting stuff away and had pot roast before stretching out.
Still feeling contest but not in the usual ways I guess. In the scheme of things, I think this technically would be a lighter contest compared to what I have done. Sandbag toss and medley work are easy enough to recover from. Stone and press weren’t maximum efforts. Only deadlift was a max effort for me. I have plenty of bruises to remind me I competed though. Not 100% certain but I think most if not all of them are from the deadlift suit. So maybe coming back to light work the week after isn’t so out of place. But what was definitely was that I went on vacation to the beach right after the contest. I haven’t been on a vacation in 8yrs I think. I had been feeling beat up and mostly was concerned about my lower back as I was getting some sciatica symptoms after the ride home from the contest and I was going to have to be in a small car for a few hours. Lower back was not my friend but I don’t feel it hampered me from doing anything I wanted to do. I didn’t want to just lay about so I went for a 90 minute walk on the beach the first day and swam for about 30 minutes and then the second day spent a good amount of time in the ocean again and digging holes for my nephew. Also carried stuff as well as the pack horse that I am. Finally getting home my lower back had calmed down enough that traction on the dip stand would work and I think finally it will start to calm down for me. Got in late so I had the day off work to get things sorted and plan for the next thing.
Mobility Prep
Dead Bugs/Lateral Step Downs (18”) bwx8/8—bwx8/8 bwx8/8—bwx8/8 bwx8/8—bwx8/8
Double Pause Deadlifts (2ct just above floor and below knees, beltless) 135x2 185x2 235x2 235x2 235x2 235x2 235x2 235x2
Band Rows/Band Goodmornings ab’sx15/sbx15 ab’sx15/sbx15 ab’sx15/sbx15
Band Pull-Aparts /Hand Elevated Push-ups (18”) mmbx15/bwx15 mmbx15/bwx15 mmbx15/bwx15
Quad Fallbacks (17” target) bwx8 bwx8 bwx8
Sled Drag Work 145x6 minutes
Stretching
Comments: Getting back into it. I do think that the swimming in the ocean helped with getting my upper body feeling loose and ready. Advised that this would be a lot of exercises but it would go by quicker than usual workouts (barring deload sessions). A pump workout. So mobility stuff was similar to what I’d normally do for this day in the week. First batch of things deemed as being workout exercises were dead bugs and lateral step downs. Normally the dead bugs are just in the mobility prep. Step downs I couldn’t go as high as I do at the strongman gym. And honestly, my legs were still feeling max deadlift. My setup at home is quite a bit more “squishy” compared to the solid boxes at the strongman gym. So I went with a lower box height. Lower back was feeling tense on the left side on the dead bugs. Usually don’t do this many. Next was deadlifting. Plan here to get over feeling that I’m injured in lower back and make things difficult and work on my bracing. Pauses off the floor and below the knee. No belt. I figured straps not needed despite it being paused pulls. More so because lower percentage and even with focus on the pausing and bracing, not enough to tax my grip in any way that I’d shorten the holds. I realized early on that I needed to rebrace each rep and not try and hold the brace for both reps. After that was goblet squats. Like last week but with pauses. Same weight and reps really. Only way I could go heavier is to load up a plate loaded dumbbell though that seems a little sketchy with the dumbbells I have. Calves were feeling tight. The next bit of things was bands. Never really tried going heavy on the band rows with both hands before. Goal here was pump. Slight hold on the rows and then slow down the movement for the band gms. Never really done these with any regularity in my entire training history. I did some light at the competition to warm-up. Strong band was needed and man is that a pain to get on my neck. Essentially having to go into full squat. Lats were feeling pumped up after that. Another superset after that with band pull-aparts and elevated push-ups. I was going to do a higher elevation but it was too easy so I setup my Jack Stands for this. Tougher than I thought they’d be but still good. Another good pump session pairing. Definitely feeling it by the end. Coming towards the end of it was a new one for me. Quad fallbacks. I’d seen Drew doing these a good bit so I figured eventually they’d show up. Christ these are difficult and awkward. Lot of straining, stressing and whatnot. Ankles not a fan haha. I know I lack mobility and strength in this mobility area for the ankles and for my hips/quads. I feel I got better as I went on these over the sets. Or I got better at cheating at it haha. Last thing for the session was to do sled drag for 5 minutes straight. Just something to get things moving and doing whatever sled dragging variations I wanted to. I was initially thinking to do just the treadmill but it was nice out and I feel the neighbors deserved to see me look stupid for a bit. Went from my driveway to my one neighbor’s driveway and went up and down. I did forward, backward and then sideways for both sides. I only got down one way on the last side when timer went so I just restarted the time and made it back up and that is where the extra minute came from. Cooled down and ate dinner before stretching out. Not going to be easy prepping for two shows at the same time.
It has been so long. Almost two years and if being honest with myself, more than two years since I last really competed. The record breaker shows don’t really count for me as I’m not competing against anyone in the present. Going against numbers on a wall. Not a flesh and blood person. Never intended to take this long of a break. I was coming off a good high in fall of 2019 and was signed up for two more contests. Then I had a pain relapse in my back two weeks out from competition. I tried to push through it but ended up in too much pain the night before at a charity event and I broke down in tears. Tried to get back but ended up withdrawing from the rest of the competitions that year, and even some for beginning of 2020. Injury cycle of questioning why I’m doing this sport, why did it happen, please make the pain stop. As with most things, time was needed and spent that winter rebuilding and aiming to just doing a fun show in June of 2020. Then COVID. World gone crazy. World changed. Held it together for about half that year. Everything cancelled, working from home, gym’s closed, not able to see people. I started training outside and in my garage. Then a break-up that still messes with me even over a year later and that was some dark times for me. Times I hope I don’t repeat. Only real constants were work, family and training. Family is family but there wasn’t really a satisfaction with work or training. But work has kind of always been that for me. Just a means to fund the things I do and give structure to the day. Training lacked a focus and I was getting discouraged. Winter 2020 also not great. Another pain relapse and then a knee injury out of nowhere. I just reached a breaking point when I was having to psyche myself up to do a yoke walk that was 50% of my best. I wasn’t enjoying this. I felt beat up and weak. I stopped training for a few weeks and tried to do my own training and that just failed spectacularly. I was trying to find a new strength training coach. I was leery about doing this. Narrowed down choices and reached out to two of them. One never responded but the other did.
I’ve known of Andrew Clayton since he was a teenager posting his videos of lifting using stuff made out of pipes on Marunde Muscle forum. I did that too (though moved away from pipe equipment early on haha). I’d only met him in person once in 2012 at SC Nationals in Tunica, Mississippi. We talked briefly about training and events. He seemed to have a good head on his shoulders. Apparently my old training videos that I put on Youtube helped him figure stuff out when he was starting out in strongman. We’ve been at this about the same amount of time but he’s done what I’ve been wanting to do which is go pro and compete internationally. I’d seen some things he had been posting with training and some competitors that struggled at certain events getting advice and progressing. I was worried I’d be rejected as a client because that is just how I view myself. A lot of potential never actualized and about a decade too late. I had someone recently tell me that I should considered taking test to live up to my full potential with my frame and leverages. Lifetime drug free athlete here but I don’t care if people use and compete against me. In either case, I just wanted to get back to feeling not so fragile. I wasn’t expecting any miracles with training. Like, this entire year would be to rebuild and see if I even wanted to compete in strongman anymore after the drain I’d been feeling. 5 weeks in and I felt like I should compete again. Hitting some PRs (lifetime and post-2016 injury) and feeling good most of the time. Feeling better mentally and physically for what feels like a long time. Which now leads to this competition.
Anxious the two weeks leading up to this. Maybe just thinking about how this was when I got injured for the last one I was prepping for back in 2019 and all the turmoil after that point. I know there good that happened too but I tend to focus on the negative space and that is something I must continue to work on. Or maybe I’m just rusty and don’t remember how this goes. This was going to be a bit different from usual prep as in the past, it was really light and deload the week out and week of literally nothing besides going for a walk and soft tissue work. This time around, doing some kind of workout up until show time. Keep things fresh. Trusted things so far. However, that isn’t the only change. For all but one of the 37 contests I’ve done in my “career” (heh) of strongman, I’ve had someone with me. Family or training partner. There have been contests where I’ve driven by myself that were close by but my family would show up later in the day when things actually started. Only once have I gone solo. This one is also going to be that. So had to make sure I was packed up and ready to go. No mistakes, nothing left behind. Already had a string of bad luck leading up to this the week of (computer died, dropped weight on my foot, power went out earlier in the week, allergies acting up) so hopefully that has gotten out of my system.
Stress effects pain symptoms with my disc bulges and I just couldn’t stop being tense the night before and I had to get up early to drive out. So I ended up talking ibuprofen and a muscle relaxer and that seemed to do the trick though I ended up with some odd dreams. I got up at 5:50 and had breakfast and put stuff in the car (it has been too hot at night to put stuff like drinks and tacky in there overnight) and was on the road around 6:30AM. Very uneventful drive and got there at about 8:04AM. I weighed in and came in at 283.3lbs but I think it was off by 4lbs. Not that it matters for HW really. Just had to be under 300lbs for the subclass. I scoped out a place to unload my stuff and have some shade and drank a weight gain shake as once I start going, I can’t really keep any food down until it is done. It was really hot and I was just sweating like crazy. Also thinking about my back. Initially there were 5 in the weight class with under 265 and under 300 combined. Then one of the under 300 competitors switched to novice. So made it so that only 1st instead of top 2 would get nationals invites. Some confusion at the rules meeting but things got sorted out. I wanted things to get over with anxiety. But I know after the first event it goes away. Usually. I just did the warm-ups I had for general stuff and waited and baked in the heat.
The first event was last man standing sandbag toss. 15’ target. Now this was initially how it was to be from the onset but when I had asked for clarification (I wanted to make sure I was prepping for it right) I was told it was three attempts. Then it was at contest back to every attempt but you can jump in at any time. Number of attempts mattered in event of a tie as well. I did just two warm-up tosses. One with the 30lbs and another with the 40lbs. I should be good for 50lbs and I wanted to try for 55lbs. I had no clue how I’d be doing on this after the car ride and just being concerned about my back. Irrational worry that I was going to throw my back out and then be 90 miles from home. I heard some people joking when I was warming up that I was already almost there just standing up. I have worked on sandbag toss like crazy this cycle. I was struggling to get 40lbs over this height in 2019 and now that is a warm-up. Been watching toss videos and getting things to finally click. Decided to open at 45lbs. I got set and calmly tossed it over. My back didn’t go. Nothing happened. I technically could’ve stopped here as I got this weight over on my first attempt and 2nd place had gotten it on fourth attempt but I wanted to keep going and see how I stacked up with the SHW. Also in my panic and inability to understand my new phone, I deleted the video so I kind of needed to get the next toss so I had something haha. By this point, two of my co-workers that I had invited showed up. Had to make 50lbs now haha. It went but not as convincingly as I’d have liked for me. 55lbs next. The promoter asked the three remaining guys if we were going to go over that. I just shrugged as I don’t know. 55lbs would be a PR for me. Took my time and up and on top of the target and then over. 5lbs PR there. I cursed a little after that as I was not expecting this. So now up to 60lbs. I knew that was going to be a big ask for me. I gave it two tries in the 30 seconds I had and I was close. I wasn’t expecting to be that close with 60lbs. Both of the other guys (SHW) got 60lbs over and then one of them got 65lbs. So starting things off with a win.
The next event for the day was deadlift. Max lift with three attempts. Suits and straps allowed and using a deadlift bar. This was the event I knew I was going to drop points on. Even when I’m feeling good. And I’d say that most of this training cycle, deadlift with a suit has felt good. Low block pulls and suited pulls and raw pulls with pauses. RDLS and such too. Lots of upper back work. In training, I stick with a regular bar and I don’t have the straps at max tightness. I get a decent amount out of a deadlift bar vs regular bar and I can get my hamstrings use to the loads over the training cycle. Also easier to keep suit not max tightness training alone in the garage. In training, I had worked up to 635lbs which was a 20lbs PR for my training suited max deadlift. Last time I did 615lbs, I did 655lbs at the contest. So I wasn’t too sure what to think as far as max deadlift this time around. Initially, it sounded like it was going to be 55lbs calibrated plates with 25’s added in between those jumps (so 50-60 jumps). Then at contest it was regular plates so back to the usual (40-50lbs jumps). Lower back tense and still not sure. I did a few warm-ups raw before putting on the suit and doing 2 singles. Hot and just unreasonably moist. I was worried that maybe I should’ve brought my figure-8 straps. I mention this as during this training prep, I switched back to figure-6 straps as I seem to have a better muscle-mind connection with the upper back muscles and a bit more control of the bar. I figured that I’d open at 585lbs and see how I feel. I wasn’t really focusing on the numbers game for deadlift. 585lbs didn’t feel great so I just took the next jump. I made my straps about an inch tighter and had someone help me get my shoulder in the one side. 635lbs also felt not great. If I was paying attention, I’d have realized that doing the next jump wasn’t going to affect my placing. But I wanted to give 675lbs a shot. Now most I’ve done on a deadlift bar in competition with a suit is 655lbs. I did do 670lbs on a tire setup that was about standard height as tires were deflated but I’m not sure that weight was accurate. Not exactly calibrated tires. I had another competitor help me get my suit as tight as I could. I wasn’t expecting anything and it felt like it wasn’t going to budge but I kept pulling as I know that sometimes flexi-bars can be a “long pull” and it kept going up. That was heavy. Let out a shout after I was done. This was a third place since I took more attempts to get 675lbs. SHW winner got 815lbs.
Up next was viking press. Listed as 350lbs but definitely wasn’t that in hand. Rules were no double dipping and once you set it down, you were done. I’ve done viking press twice in competition (was to do it three times but I had pain relapse and dropped out the day before) with not great success with training transferring over to competition. Then again, I’m usually not that great a presser on non-odd objects. Pressing has been an event where I can feel terrible or great. It is one of the few events that my contest best on some variations is lower than my training best. I researched the hell out of the implement that was going to be used for the contest and figured about what it would be in hand and tried to match that setup in training. Did different styles of pressing with my makeshift viking press as well as with axle push presses. Paused push presses, negatives, rebound vs non-rebound reps, holding lockouts and doing strict press with bands. Just to train for any possible issue. I managed to improve my viking press on my home setup by 44lbs so I felt ready. Until my back started to act like crap the week of. Going for a heavy double back in October 2019 had been what caused that pain relapse. I’ve also not performed well on this when my back is bothering me. Not able to use the power and hip drive as efficiently. Did warm-ups with 250lbs and felt ok. I got to go last here so I had the opportunity to see what was needed. I had also been watching everyone before me in the other weight classes to see how the apparatus handled. The hinge could move side to side while the pendulum with the weights could move back and forth. My style of viking press of really leaning into it when I press would seem to agitate the pendulum. I had figured that I could win this event in my group. Reps to beat was six. Things were good until the fifth rep when the rocking became too much and almost lifted the back end of the setup. Luckily I trained for this and held it at lockout for it to settle and did two easy reps to get seven and stopped there. I probably could’ve done like 4 more at most but that would’ve had me as 3rd against the SHW guys as top two were 14 and 18 reps haha. Still, a win is a win.
The fourth event was a medley. Fire hydrant of 170lbs for 40’, duck walk of 360lbs (it was definitely more as that was just the weight added to implement so probably 375ish) for 40’ and then a sled drag (unknown weight but 180lbs tossed in) for 40’. Run back 40’ for the first two and then the sled was there to be pulled back. In training, I didn’t fret too much on this one as drag events are always tough to predict as they can range from so easy you fall backwards to keep up to it being wielded to the ground. The knee issue that popped up in training with my left knee giving out resulted in not really getting as much of a chance to work the pieces together. I had been trying to figure things out for the fire hydrant initially but once I found out it was only going to be 180lbs at most, I stopped. With training my thinking was that I needed to be quick on the fire hydrant and get it high so I could use my stride and make up for lost time on the sled drag as I tend to be slow on duck walk. Sled drag training had been for long distances and tried to have it be on high friction surfaces. Another part with the medley was that initially it was the objects were to be loaded into the sled. Not sure if the change to them being set upright was due to the total weight in the sled being too much to move or if rim of sled too high for most to clear for the duck walk. The event was in the parking lot and considering this was PA, it was uneven. From observation, it appeared it was not equal both ways and the event ran with it alternating direction. To me, it seemed the drag was tougher one way and ideally the course should be reset so everyone is doing the same. I was last to go again and the time to be was 41 something, second was 57 something and third being distance given. Barring some disaster, I was finishing and I felt I could win even though I was slower on duck walk. And disaster struck almost immediately on the fire hydrant. So during warm-ups and familiarization, I had seen other people handling the fire hydrant. My attempt during then with it facing how everyone else was ended up with me getting it low and scratching up my right wrist to drawing blood. I tried it a different way and it seemed to be easier and catch it just right. My error was not taking into consideration that my relaxed state in warm-ups wasn’t going to be what my agitated state was when the timer started as I overpulled and the wrist missed catching it and it rotated almost out of my left hand. I caught it but I was holding it with a pinch grip on the bolt. Thank you above average grip strength as I managed to hold on to it and struggle to the 40’ mark as I knew if I dropped it, I wasn’t getting first. Had to overshoot the end line to use enough of my forward momentum to flip the fire hydrant upright. Put myself in a hole here with the duck walk. Started off decent enough but as I fatigued, my stride lessened to keep from getting off balance. About the only thing I could do to save time was at the end to essentially power stair hump the duck walk forward across the line (timed it just right) and then make it toward the sled. This was where I had to make up time. Very slight uphill at the very end and I rowed it. Heard 40 something and I had just got first by skin of the teeth. The top 3 in the SHW division crushed that time by 10 seconds. Going into final event with a 3pt lead (though scoresheet said 4pt).
The final event was atlas stones. My best event. Usually. My baby. The event that I was so confident in that I felt that no one here would beat me at it. I feel that I should be humble, confidence to me feels like arrogance and it gets complicated. I don’t mean it as disrespect as I treat everyone here as competitor that deserves my all. The only way I wasn’t getting first at this point was if I got last place on stones and second place one it. Event was 375lbs stone over bar for reps in 60 seconds. I’m not 100% certain as listed as 50” but I heard the helpers talking about it being 52” and I was too tired from the soul sapping heat to bother and check beforehand. It didn’t matter as I was going to do it. I trained higher than this for most of the cycle anyways. Hot and no shade (though it did sprinkle rain slightly for like a minute lol) so had to time things right with getting ready. Make sure I didn’t sweat through the tape, make sure I kept tacky at a good temperature and not too hot. The day was getting to me though as I got upper abdominal cramp on the right side and cramp in left calf muscle trying to get my lucky stone shoes on. My father has commented that as the competition goes on, I seem to get better whereas others seem to falter. I corrected him in that it’s not that I get better, I just don’t drop off. Been doing this since 2008 and been training outside in the elements since March 2020 at this point. Some training sessions have been in this heat and been almost 6hrs. I got to watch the other competitors go. It was a little hard to gauge things as two of the guys this stone would be a PR I think whereas the other one has definitely done this for reps. So after two guys went with it being no lift (unable to lap it) I could tell this was going to be a tough stone and tacky was not helping at all. Like it was greased. Third competitor no lift and it was now me. With the points, I didn’t have to do a lift to win. But that’s not me. I was going to do it. I got set and went for it. I held tight but I could feel it slipping and sliding. Well trying to. Couldn’t quite do my quick lap and go on it as I had to do a slight regrip but got it just high enough to do the minimum effort to get it over. One and done. I had put my stamp on it. Two of the SHWs managed one rep but that was a max effort for them and I definitely had a lot more in the tank if needed. Commiserated over an open trashcan with other competitors as talked about how that stone sucked and cleaned up the tacky mess.
I knew I had won before stones had finished but the single lift had doubled my lead. 1st out of 4 in the weight class and I feel if HW and SHW had been combined, I’d have gotten 3rd out of 9. Just so worn and tired and in desperate need of more fluids. I was happy now but I know the feeling is fleeting. Already thinking about what needs to be improved. A lot of rust was shaken off for sure but I feel that my anxiety and just trying to keep from collapsing in the heat kept me from being more outgoing and hanging out with the other competitors. I did catch myself essentially stepping away after the HW group was done to check on my co-workers and then retreating to shade. I did end up qualifying for SC Nats but I already had decided I wasn’t doing that this year. I’m hoping my back will calm down on me over the next few days and I can resume the breakneck pace I have for this year as I have at least two more competitions scheduled for 2021 with the next one being end of August.
Bulgarian Split Squats/Band Leg Hamstring Curls bwx20/20 – lbx20 bwx17/17 – lbx20 bwx13/13 – lbx20
Planks bwx30 seconds bwx30 seconds
Stretching
Comments: Last workout involving weights for this training cycle. I think. Trying to make it short and quick. Get in, get out without any damage. I get anxious and paranoid the closer it is to go time. Just been so long since I’ve competed. Haven’t gone this long. Torn hamstring and back injuries didn’t keep me out as long as COVID-19 and just the deluge of crap that was late 2019 to start of this year. All fans in the garage to try and keep things tolerable. Movement prep for today was a little different. Usually the movement prep stuff is just going through it twice but this time it was thrice. On to lifting stuff. Deadlifts from the floor again. Really light. Like a third of my raw max. Plan being I guess to get bad thoughts out of my head with how last week went with them and have it light and work on getting that perfect start. Think about pulling 700lbs. Feeling ok. I mean, it is really light. Third set it felt perfect. Was feeling about the same on the fourth set but I think maybe too fast as my lower back seized up slightly. Trying to not think on that. Can’t let that stuff get to me now. Or ever. Keep swimming. Next thing being goblet squats with heels elevated. I was told to do these with 3-5 RIR for 3x10. I wasn’t expecting to go as heavy as I did as I was hoping doing a steady tempo would be enough with 70lbs but nope. Really only stopped with 95lbs as that is the heaviest solid dumbbell I have and I haven’t tried this heavy on goblet squats in many, many years so a bit out of practice on the dismount after the set is done. Next was a superset of Bulgarian split squats and band leg curls. No tempo and bodyweight only with the split squats and to do them for max reps each set (leaving 4-5 RIR) whereas the band leg curls were back to both legs same time and to do them 3x20 with 5 RIR. I figured that with the band leg curls, that I could do light bands (average bands would be too much as I can’t anchor the other side to keep me from moving so I can use more tension on the single leg verisions). I guess I only had been using mini bands before so that is an improvement. The split squats I was worried I’d be doing too many reps and get fatigued and have DOMS in my quads for days. No knee aches though. Similar to what I did with the push-ups and rows was try to do these with no stops. Not exactly though as I took a slight break between sides. My left side was faring better than my right this day. I did take a break after each to record the reps but not really enough to fully recover between sets. Bands got really tough by the end. I think I sped up on the split squats each set to get them over with. Last item for the session was just body weight planks. Made myself take a break between them. Ate a big meal before stretching. Iced knees before bed as well.
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 off-season training before starting prep for Natural East Coast Qualifier in Eatontown, NJ on January 16, 2027. I’m not a major competitor yet and I have a long way to go but I’m having fun.
