October 14, 2021 – Week 1, Day 2

 Even though more than half of my life so far has involved weight training of some kind, I still have to remember and relearn lessons. But also need to keep things in focus with strongman competitions. I’ve not competed frequently since 2018 (more than 2 shows, don’t really count 2019 since two of the shows that year were just against myself for maxes so like testing sessions). So I tend to forget that can need a bit of time to get up to par with competition season like I did when I started or prior to COVID-19. And even if some cycles for shows were shorter, the plan had been for those shows as far back as 9 months prior and slow integration of them over other training cycles and having similar events from one to the other helped with that competitive season. I think the biggest stress I get with pushing for the higher level stuff is with my not as good events when it’s for reps and the weight is above my all-time best max single in that lift. I’m hopeful for improvements but they are slow and usually when crunch time comes, I tend to not go at my own pace and try to just get there now. Rush and get stressed out that I’m not there and I’m going to fail it. Most events don’t award zero points for potential equivalent effort. And these events tend to be the qualifier events for online things for the bigger shows as well. As of kind of mentioned in passing, I need to think where I am as far as using training maxes for exercises/events going forward. Sure I have PRs since 2016 injury that I’ve been tracking but some things haven’t been done in a long time or at the level where a PR was set and that matters. Circus dumbbell was way too optimistic and arrogant on my part trying to put 38lbs on that lift in 12 weeks. Best was 187lbs since the back injury with my best being 202lbs from over half a decade ago. So still 23lbs life time PR. Even the open was a big jump from where I was with 18lbs. 10% increase. On my best since 2017. And I wasn’t at that point after the elbow and wrist injury. 177lbs was probably my best on a perfect day after that stuff. So these are the kinds of things I need to be mindful of. So doing a show with a max seems ok as I can aim for a PR but it doesn’t mean I get nothing if I don’t succeed and I can go at my pace and adjust if necessary. Like with the deadlift. Yes, 700lbs was the goal for the show but life happens and did a hard fought 650lbs (which is the lowest max I’ve done for a suited pull in contest) to tie for the New Jersey state record in the under 140kgs weight class. I need to take some things into consideration with events is all. Nothing set in stone time percentages or such but like within 5% of my current maxes if doing a less than 12 week prep and no other supplemental work that has been built upon. Some things need to get back up to a better baseline (log and axle full movements) as well as some of the heavier emphasis moving events (yoke and farmers). Depends on weights too. Stones I was able to stay 83-92% with just one session at 100% of contest. I know I can work lighter percentages and do well (hell great) on that event. Data from this past show as far as yoke shows me that I can work lower percentages with higher percentage holds and do ok. Not the most ideal obviously to do that but it was needed with the knee issues and the time given. Heaviest moving was 83% of contest and heaviest hold was 94% of contest. A break from the heavy and events isn’t a stop from doing tough stuff obviously. But I feel that base lines will need to be assessed on more standard things that haven’t been as emphasized with the past two contests under Andrew to see what I’m working with to kind of plan things further out than this next contest. Assuming that I recover well from the ouchies and aches.

Band Pec Flyes/Paused Band Pull-Aparts (3 seconds)
lb’sx20/µbx20
lb’sx20/µbx20

12” Log Incline Bench Presses (3 seconds eccentrics)
87x10
107x8
127x6
152x3
177x10 (miscounted)
177x8
177x8
177x8

Paused Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows (3 seconds)
10’x5
40’sx5
70’x10
70’x10
70’x10

Bench Dips
Feet On Ground
bwx4
Feet Elevated
bwx2
bwx6
bw+20x13 (miscounted)
bw+32x12
bw+45x12

Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raises/Band Face Pulls
22x15/15 – abx15
22x15/15 – abx15
22x15/15 – abx15

Close Grip Push-ups
bwx37
bwx26

Stretching
 
Comments: Well the good news is that allergy/cold stuff is getting a lot better. Only had to use nasal spray as opposed to using Claritin and Dayquil. One super easy day and then back into it. And I think honestly that was enough time to feel like training with some intensity again. A little bit later start than planned but that was ok (other things going on) as needed to let my pot roast cook longer. So this would be the true start to the workout cycle. Offseason deemed as “pump/hypertrophy” phase. Start slow and build up from there. Feel the muscles working, don’t just move the weight. Still keeping an eye on the shoulders at this point. Starting point of the session was bands superset. Pec flyes with pull-aparts. Noting to try and feel the chest stretch on the later. Like those old timey chest expanders I guess. I wasn’t sure if I’d need more tension on these based off of how these had felt before. I decided that I’d aim lighter than if I was to be pushing things as this was higher reps than before, shoulders could be upset with me on them and I haven’t tried that long of holds for that many reps on pull-aparts. This was the right call. The pec flyes were perfect, though the tendonitis was acting up a bit (tolerable). The pull-aparts were torturous. Burning in the anterior deltoids from fatigue and lactic acid. Even using a micro band, these were a struggle by the last set. Shoulders and chest were already pretty toasted just one exercise pairing in and I had a good bit more to do. Just getting started. So first exercise with weights was log incline bench presses. Kind of expected since log is the press event for the next contest and from how training went in the first cycle with these (after I got used to them), these seem like a good secondary day exercise to work on getting shoulders, triceps and chest strong. So the plan for these was to pyramid up in and then do 4x8 with a weight I felt I could do with 3-5RIR on that first set. The catch was that these were to be done with 3 seconds negatives and brief pause at the chest and aim for 2 minutes rest. With how things felt after the bands, this could be a struggle haha. I decided that I’d do 20lbs-ish jumps in weight and then a bigger jump near the end before the working sets. Get used to the movement and feel how my shoulders were handling things. I also decided to not use any fractional plates and worry about that nonsense. I figured based off past numbers and then taking the goals of the session that log plus my red bumper plates would fit the bill. These felt fine enough. Took until the second set where it felt a good bit easier than the first that I realized I did 10 reps instead of 8 that first set. Right shoulder with how it has been feeling was definitely feeling more fatigued compared to the left one by the end. Understandable really. From there it was on to rows. Dumbbell rows using the bench to support my chest. Control the movement and hold in contraction for 3 seconds. No arching the back. Suggested was to put weights on a bench or box to make easier to get to. But I got long ass arms and picking them off the ground works best for me and they won’t touch the ground when set my position. I figured that I should stick lighter with the holds here as I’ve noticed that those really sap my strength (and I really seem to cheat rows in general) and don’t need to mess with plateloaded dumbbells just yet. Right side my scapula wasn’t tracking right. Or something wasn’t. Just felt like shoulder blade wasn’t moving right way and tendons and such were just off. I’m not sure exactly what it is or if I’m describing it right. But I’ve had it happen before and just need to get stuff moving again and it will feel fine. Part of the shoulder issue and I know that doing these kinds of exercises will get the shoulder stable and feeling good again eventually. Thing is that the week of the contest, the left side was the one that didn’t feel like it was tracking. Half way through the second working set, it felt normal with it feeling perfectly fine on that last set. With both shoulder blades feeling set, I was able to feel my midback contract better. I think that was when lightbulb clicked that this was going to help with log cleans with hitting these muscles. Next was an exercise I’ve maybe done before but never really did much in the past. Bench dips. I think just testing out exercises to see how they feel and if they are good ones to try with all the different things going on with the shoulders and knees. Plan being 3x12. See how they felt and adjust from there. I may have read things wrong and I might have been only to do 3x12 with bodyweight with my feet on the ground (essentially the easiest variation) with indication to put my feet on a bench and add weight for progression. I took that as if initial was too easy to do that to stick with a 3RIR difficulty. Did a few reps testing things out and shoulders seemed ok. This is definitely an exercise where my shoulders need to be warmed up and loose to do I think. If any shoulder was going to give me issues, it was going to be the right one. Yet another use for the single leg support bench thingy for this exercise. A bit tricky adding weight to my lap so perhaps may need to adjust by doing tempo or more reps possibly as these did seem like a good one for the triceps. Back to supersets. Leaning side laterals with band face pulls. I figured I could do a decent bit on the leaning laterals as most of what I’ve done has been with holds and pauses in the past. Same with the face pulls as of late. Only thing I made perhaps a misjudgment on was which side to start. I assumed my right would be the lagging side with how it has felt a little wonky and fatigued and that arms tendonitis is worse. It seemed to be ok. The left side was tougher. I did end up putting on the compression cuff for that side on the following sets and it felt a ton better. Have to remember that. Face pulls were quite easy compared. Shorter movement and less time really. Last item was close grip push-ups. Assuming these were to be bodyweight only. I made sure to keep the rest between to the 2 minutes or so to minimize how much I recovered. But I also tend to do a lot that first set and fatigue sets in quick and I struggle to hit higher reps. So I may have stopped prematurely on that first set as goal was to do 2RIR on these and probably closer to 3-4RIR. Hard to say when the fatigue hits on these. Wrists and shoulders ached initially on like the first two reps and then felt nice and smooth. Just haven’t been doing push-ups without ring or grip for like ever haha. Finished up this workout fairly quickly so I had time to put everything away and stretch before eating pot roast.

October 12, 2021 – Week 1, Day 1

Took a bit longer than I was expecting to “recover” from the show so to speak. Sleep cycle was off and appetite was all over the place. Only thing that feels off is my right shoulder from the fingal fingers I think. Keeping an eye on that obviously. Forcing myself to do an off-season. I need it. It could be boring and tedious but it is needed right now. Not sure if this will be 4 weeks or longer (like 8 max) but have to play it by ear. Focusing on too many things. One at a time. This next show and do well enough to qualify for SC Nats. That is the goal right now. Trying to keep myself from drifting off from that, like thinking about doing a show that has some of the events I didn’t do as well as I liked at this last show to “redeem” myself or get “revenge”. Which is stupid. Let it go. One week at a time.

Band Push-ups (3 seconds negatives)/Inverted Ring Rows
bwx5/bwx5
bwx5/bwx5
mbx15/bw+20x15
mbx15/bw+20x12
mbx12/bw+20x10

Paused Half Kneeling Single Arm Band Pulldowns (3 seconds holds)/Dumbbell Lateral Raises
sbx15/15 – 21’sx15
sbx15/15 – 21’sx15
sbx15/15 – 21’sx15

Seated Band Hamstring Curls/Heel Elevated Spanish Squats (strong band)
ab’sx25/bwx15
ab’sx25/bwx15
ab’sx20/bwx15

Planks
bwx30 seconds

Sled Drag Work
165x5 minutes
165x5 minutes

Stretching
 
Comments: As with last post contest week, this first session back was a pump session for both upper and lower body. It did take longer to get things sorted out beforehand so I do wonder if that made this workout a day later or if the plan had been take off Monday from the start. As with most of last cycle, it does appear that the upper body focus days don’t have prescribed prep work before the main lifting portion. At this point, still got tendonitis and dealing with the neck/shoulder issues (seem to be getting better on the left side, actively trying to not sleep on that side). I wasn’t sure how the right shoulder would react with things so kind of played by ear here. First up was a pairing of push-ups with bands and inverted rows with weights added. Leaving reps in reserve. I did two warm-up sets with just bodyweight for both to make sure stuff was feeling good in the shoulders and to get ready. I used a lighter band tension just to be on the safe side with things as I wasn’t sure how the shoulders would like this or how they would react. Both felt good (push-ups and rows). Rows fatigued much faster than push-ups. Next was another superset. I figured I could do the strong band for the pulldowns with the holds no problem and I was right. Again, working the muscles and seeing how the shoulders felt on these. Lateral raises I lowered the planned weight to make sure these stayed in the right range and this turned out to be perfect. I do need to keep track of what seems to need the compression cuff to help minimize the discomfort and which I can/should take it off so as not to limit things. That was it for upper body essentially and it was time for lower body stuff. Hamstring curls paired with Spanish squats. I was already a little annoyed that the main garage lights weren’t working as it got too damp the past few days. Setup and switching between these two exercises was a little tricky. Leg curls are easy and fine. The Spanish squats aren’t. I have trouble getting depth on these as I feel like I’m leaning too far forward and having the knees go forward when they’re not supposed to. These were slow and quite challenging and I feel like these were fine on my quads and knees but the quality of the movement isn’t up to snuff for me. After this was a set of planks. Just bodyweight for 30 seconds. Easy, just a rest break I guess. Last item for the night was sled drag work. Two sets of 5 minutes. Really light weight as I was to do all kinds of things. Forwards, backwards, sideways and rows. The right leg is still a little tender when it comes to pushing off when doing the sideways walks using that leg to lead. I took maybe a minute break but I count slow so maybe closer to 90 seconds between the sets. These were easy, it was just dark outside and lots of leaves in piles in the street. Left the stuff out in the garage for the next day so that I could get down to eating dinner and stretching.

October 9, 2021 – Clash of the Tridents

 As with most of my contest write-ups (write-ups in general) I put a lot of words on the page. This one I feel needs the backstory of things going on to get the mindset of things for this show. Maybe I write these to get the thoughts out of my head so I can move on to the next thing. Try to see the thoughts physically manifest and try and figure out what can be learned from it. Perhaps this is just an elaborate and several year case study that someone can use for an abnormal psyche thesis paper. Not done yet, keep it together. That has been the feeling since the start of this prep after the last competition. End of last competition, I felt beat but good. Like I could do it all. I took a vacation for like the first time in nearly a decade and swam in the ocean to just relax. I had two contest close together planned to get to 40 total competitions in my career. But plans rarely go as planned in my opinion. Two weeks into the new training cycle, I had an accident. Box jumps claim another. Took a tumble and landed hard. I knew I had sprained my left wrist and continued the rest of the workout. It was only later when I realized I couldn’t fully bend or extend my elbow that there was a bigger problem. I had fractured my elbow and I had to wear a sling and wrist brace for a week at all times and then I could take it out after that with a follow up 4 weeks later. Which would be the day before the planned August show. I ended up withdrawing from that competition which I hated doing. I did find out at my follow up that the fracture was an “avulsion” fracture which is what I had done to my pinkie fingers in 2019 and that that restriction I had been feeling was scar tissue. Honestly, if I had known that was the case, I probably would’ve still attempted that August show with that knowledge. Strongman, not smartman. Attempting to work around things also added stress and pressure. Compensate. More lower body work and focusing on what I could focus lead to some overuse injuries for my tendons in my elbows and knees. Also did something to my left side of my neck and I’m not sure if that was fall related or if it was from doing other stuff to work around the injury that caused that as well. Tendon pain that made me think it was something worse. Knowing what the issue is and giving it a name can help but hard to take “you’re doing too much” as treatment when you feel like you are doing the bare minimum in the first place to do the thing that you love (and will probably kill you). Spoilers, I survived.

For this particular show, it was announced almost a year in advance. I tend to not sign up for those kinds of shows as that is a long way away and life happens more often than not. And things can get really fucky with COVID-19 stuff. But I signed up for it as I loved the events. Late October 2020 I was on the rebound from a past few shitty months. Then I had problems with things near the end of that year and beginning of 2021 that I requested to withdraw from the competition as I was feeling like crap and worried I had a severe knee injury and that perhaps I was just done with all this nonsense. I’ve detailed that a good bit in my training logs and touched on that briefly in the previous contest write-up in July to give some depth to that competition’s meaning and prep. Entries had fluctuated as initially only 50 and then it went up to 100 and then topped out at 130 or so. Then USS added a pro class division and that enticed be back to doing the show as I had a bit of a pep in my step and felt I could get on that level. I had tried to get back in earlier than that but there was a waitlist and I didn’t like to have that uncertainty of if I was or wasn’t so I had not gotten back in at that time. I’m thankful the promoter was so understanding with my in and out status with the competition. So I was initially going at this for the pro level but I realized that it wasn’t going to happen. Recovering from broken bones and injuries and then asking that much on my body. Essentially WSM level weights on some of the events. It hurt to admit to myself that I wasn’t there yet, even after all this time and effort. Trying to not think that dropping back down to open class from the pro class was cowardice. I know it isn’t but hard to not focus on that. I tend to think I’ve done very little in the sport and I again, hear what people say but I still got that voice that says that. The thing the both drives me forward and drives me insane.

It wasn’t all bad. This was going to be a trip when it came to a show. This contest required travel and it would the first one since March 2019 that required an overnight stay. My father would be able to go this time which hadn’t been the case at the last show. I slept well enough and took the day off from work so I could get sleep and be rested for driving out and kind of get used to the area. Good thing having my dad is that I can sleep if I need to pre and post contest. I don’t have many people to talk to when it comes to my stresses and thoughts with strongman and competing so it is nice to deload with my dad on this stuff. Drive was fairly uneventful and I ended up taking like a 10 minutes nap just as we got there. Atlantic City, New Jersey on the boardwalk. It has been to my knowledge, the first time in a decade that they’ve had a contest here. I think that last one had been on the beach. The one before that had been in a hotel in 2009 and I was a lightweight (middleweight now, but then there wasn’t anything other than over and under 105kgs). That show had been challenging but I didn’t perform well (and it was my last under 231lbs show I did). Hotel owner was furious seeing what strongman actually was and seeing logs dropped from overhead and completely missing the tires didn’t help haha. So this show is to return next year but I do wonder if it will now that they’ve seen what it is we do. It was kind of strange being there. To be fair, I’ve not really been a social person and have a ton of anxiety but it seemed like there wasn’t many people there when it came down to it. A lot of things seemed to be closed and there weren’t really any signs indicating such. This was to be the Mr. America Sports Expo and I don’t know how they got any money to cover this. Weighed in at 278.2lbs without my shoes on and there were going to be six in my group (five as the one person never showed up) and just kind of had the rest of the evening to do whatever. Got lost in the hotel by accidentally getting into the in-between level that was where the hotel maintenance staff was and that seemed like an abandoned high school. Lot of the amenities weren’t available (like the pool) so after eating an expensive dinner, ended up just trying to relax in the hotel room. I know this seems to be like Poochie keeping Itchy and Scratchy from getting to the fireworks factory but I promise you Milhouse, we will get there.

Woke up at 7AM to get ready for the day. I wasn’t feeling it. I swept well and ate well and did what I could to get shoulder and neck to behave but I wasn’t feeling like I was here to lift heavy things. I had been feeling a little under the weather the day before and just can’t tell if it is bad allergies or just a the weakest cold I’ve ever had. Got down to the competition area to get set for the day. Saw security escorting a woman with a bruised face. No clue what that was about. My friend, Brian, was here to judge one of the events so that was nice to catch up with him. I had no idea what to expect of the day as it could be super long or short. I could tell some people were already pissed off with the event orders. Due to the number of people allegedly signed up (I think eventually was 79 people) it was going to be five groups going at the same time on different implements. Being the SHW/Pro group, got to go in the order of events as listed on the entry, which was going to be the probably the best setup to insure best effort in each event. I did go to the different areas to see how things felt as this was inside a hotel with carpet. Started warming up for the day when they announced they would be starting 30 minutes later than expected. So I figured I’d use that time to try and get my neck and shoulder to be ok for at least a little bit. One of the sponsors for the show was a massage/physical therapist and I had really hoped he would show up timely. He wasn’t there Friday and didn’t show up until later on Saturday during the competition. Brian told me that there was a two guys as part of the expo that were doing services (but not for tips) so I went over there to see if I could get my neck and shoulder sorted out. The one guy had a livestream going so I guess I ended up on that. I immediately got big “vaccines cause 5g” energy from him. He did cupping, scraping and percussive stuff. Talked a lot of broscience, gave me a caffeine infused alkaline water and told me not to sleep on my left side for the next six weeks. I’ll try but I’m apparently like a rotisserie chicken in my sleep. Had to rush outside after that to get there for the rules meeting on the boardwalk. Had group of tourist take pictures next to me (thinking I didn’t notice) to show how tall I was to their friends or something. I am the attraction.

The first event was circus dumbbell clean and press for reps. Heavy weight of 205lbs for reps. This was nationals weight less than 6 years ago. Now when this show was announced, I was thinking this was going to be tough but doable. My best ever in training had been 202lbs and done 200lbs for three reps (two were counted) at Nationals in 2015. But that was then. Since the 2016 injury, my best I’ve managed has been 187lbs with a close miss at 197lbs. But I was doing 180lbs for reps decent enough. That was 2017 and haven’t really gone above 180lbs since 2018 really. But I was feeling good off of last training cycle and my coach, Andrew Clayton, is one of the best in the world at this event. I thought I was off to a good start with the training as first week with it I was doing 10 singles EMOM with 160lbs no problem. Then I was stupid and fractured my elbow and sprained my wrist. So now my good arm was fucked and I couldn’t do stuff with it outside of 10lbs and a mini band for almost 6 weeks. I couldn’t really use that arm to help with the clean for the other side either so training was really modified to put in effort and try and keep from losing anything on the left side. I do feel I maintained with my efforts but didn’t improve and coming back to it I was good bit behind and it took me like a month to get back to close to where I had started things before the break. I should be ecstatic that I could even get back to that after what I did to my arm and the issues going on but I’m not. I’m frustrated and this event was probably the one that stressed me out the most. Best I got in training was a smooth 170lbs but that is 35lbs off the pace. So chances were super slim this would happen. I did my best as far as warm-ups. Circus dumbbell tends to be one of those where warm-ups are usually shit with how technique dependent it can be and it isn’t as easy to change weights like a log or axle. Compared to what I had at home, the handle was a lot thinner but it was slicker material. I did bands using my fat gripz extreme before doing some singles with the different class dumbbells. I had to jump from 85lbs to 130lbs. I did a rep with and without my elbow sleeve on to see how things felt. Sleeve for sure. It was at this point I went to get my neck and shoulder worked on and then rules. Came back and the dumbbell was loaded to 180lbs so I did two cleans with it as I wasn’t going to go for 50lbs increase cold. By virtue of signing up earliest, I went last. Tim, got two reps and no one else was close. He was who I saw was going to be the guy to beat today. If I didn’t get a rep, it would be 5pt hole I’d be in. I chalked up the dumbbell as they were setting it up but had to back off before I could wipe it down a bit. That was fine, I was only going to try for one rep and give it at most two shots so 60 seconds was plenty. Got set and got the dumbbell to the shoulders. It was heavy. I braced and went for it and it got maybe 2” off my shoulders. I took my time and asked for time at 15 seconds left to give it another shot. Couldn’t get it up high enough for a good shouldering of the dumbbell and I knew that it wasn’t going to happen so bailed on it. So zero on this event. Not what I wanted but expected based off of everything.

The next event for the day was deadlift. Max lift with three attempts. Suits and straps allowed and using a deadlift bar. 50lbs jumps unless going for state record. Different deadlift bar from last show and I knew that they’d be using 100lbs plates instead of 45’s like last show. Compared to last show, with who was competing, I felt it was possible to win or at least not lose too many points. Two people would be aiming for like 600lbs and myself and two other for 700lbs. Training for this had not been the best. Again, not being allowed to use my one arm meant modifications that lead to more squat frequency and using machines and other exercises. I also ended up getting a deadlift strap harness that worked well enough. But it does seem that getting all the muscles stronger for deadlift just doesn’t seem to be enough for me to actually improve the deadlift. I hit some big numbers for myself on high box squats and really added reps and decreased assistance with tough hamstring exercises. In late 2019, I struggled to do an inverse leg curl with 225lbs of assistance for a set of 6 reps. I’m doing 115lbs of assistance for sets of 12 reps. But my deadlift hasn’t improved by 110lbs and it isn’t always a 1:1 situation. Missing 6 weeks of deadlift specific work isn’t great and then dealing with the knee issues from tendonitis and possibly stuff leftover from earlier injuries (yoke from beginning of the year and the box jump issue). The seemed to be a change with deadlift work being more suit work rather than every other week with the previous cycle. I had attempted 650lbs in training and missed it, which is my first miss I’ve had with a suited pull from the ground. I’ve never missed a lift in training before or in contest. So that had been eating at me but I knew I’d had it in me to pull this weight and more at the show. Well I didn’t feel so great at the show. I figured this would be a harder pull than it had been at my last show from the bar (it seemed to be not rolling well) and how the plates would be. I thought pacing here would be a little different as I had taken the time to get my first protein shake down and now I was going to have to get into my suit. Ugh. I did get to do the warm-ups I wanted to get a feel for how I was doing today. The answer wasn’t great. I decided that I’d do 600lbs as my opener and only do a second attempt to save my energy and hopefully match points with people and see if they missed heavier attempts. A gamble for sure. 600lbs I had my straps at training tightness. Christ did that pull suck. So I knew 700lbs wasn’t in me today and 650lbs could be in question. I had my straps put at maximum tightness for the 650lbs attempt. With how the bar was and mats, it wasn’t really rolling so I had to keep creeping closer and closer to the bar rather than great a big breath and pull it into me. This felt heavy and slow and I had a little bit of hitching to lock it out. Done. Other guys still in this for our class went for 700lbs and 705lbs and both missed these super close lifts. With that result, I ended up in three way tie for first. So tied for 2nd at this point and still 5pts out from first.

Up next was fingal fingers. Listed as 350lbs. I’d like to think I’d be good at this event. Unlike most of the competitors, I have access to and implement. But due to issues (elbow, wrist, knees), I didn’t get to really do any direct training at all with it. With my luck, it wasn’t worth the risk for this contest. Only direct work I did was some clean and presses with the 400lbs one at the gym in June to just test things out. And that was just to do some practice without stressing the knees so much with the recent knee scare I had back then. I’ve only touched it twice before that in 2019. Did an EMOM where I fractured my pinkie fingers and hit an irony PR and then one set two weeks before a contest that year where I had a disc bulge and had to withdraw the day before as I was in so much pain just standing. I had hit 7 reps in a minute with that in those conditions. So I figured I could still do ok even with all this. This had been the decision. But it is hard to figure out listed weights being certain things. This implement was loaded with custom metal discs and I’m not sure if this was weight in hand or something else. So what we started warming up with was 300lbs, which was what the HWM were using. That had 6 discs in it. 3 more discs were added to get ours to 350lbs. That 300lbs felt like the 400lbs at the gym and I didn’t think the extra discs would effect things that much. Warmed up with bands and did some rows with the finger and did two clean and presses with it at the 300lbs weight. We were rushed over and then had a very long down time as we needed the crash pads from the dumbbell area as the weight of the finger was too much for the tires when they came down that they were hitting the floor. Got to get that deposit back haha. I was slightly worried about my left shoulder not holding up to this but that had been when I thought it was more a shoulder rotary issue and not a pinched nerve in neck issue. This was back to the order of entry for this event. Watched as the first two guys struggled. The leader overall went next and he got a tough two reps 30 seconds in before the discs just shot out of the thing like a cannon as the finger fell. Luckily no one was in the path of that improvised claymore. This had happened to the first guy that went too but with 10 seconds left and he couldn’t get it back up to the shoulders again. It was also only 1 disc that came out whereas all of them this time. So it was at least 5, maybe 10 minutes before things were ready to go again. Now I’m not sure what the right call was for this but what was decided by the judge was that he’d continue with 30 seconds left. Other options for this I think. From how he was fatiguing, I’m not certain he’d have gotten four total reps in 60 seconds and three could’ve been close. So four was the number to beat. I went for my usual clean style but it just felt so damn heavy and I had to just kind of continental it up to the chest to press. Walking the finger was easy. Just the way the weight was distributed made it really damn heavy in hand. More so than what I had to train on. I may need to practice on the 500lbs finger in the future. I was a little slower walking the finger down the second rep as I felt my right shoulder shift on me but kept going. Went for a fourth rep but I couldn’t get it high enough. My grippy gloves worked against me as I couldn’t get my fingers from my left hand under the finger to press it and had them put the tires and mats back so I could set it down. Not enough time and settled for three fingers and second place. Annoyed with this one. Have to be stronger. In second outright at this point but now 6pts off the mark.

The fourth event was a medley. Sandbag carry into yoke. But you load the sandbags onto the yoke as the weight for the yoke. Little baskets on the side of the yoke. Sandbags not difficult weights but the yoke was going to be. 25’ for the sandbags and then 50’ for the yoke. Not sure how this would go. Back and hips were tight as hell at this point. I had been training the sandbags heavier than contest mainly because they were so light and I only had access to one 200lbs sandbag and had two 250lbs sandbags. Yoke was 850lbs. Heavy but not ridiculously so. It wouldn’t have been if I was on form for it. 2018 I’d say my yoke was at its best I was regularly doing contests with above 800lbs so it was a frequent training weight. But after that not so much and I was regressing on it as I was focusing so much on my speed of movement and it got in my head. Lower weights and getting knee pain. Getting in my head about it and the fact my knees were killing me and I had to psyche up to move 500lbs just really messed with things earlier this year. So I was kind of starting from about 50% of my best coming back to yoke training. So with that in mind, the yoke training was some of the best I’ve done and with more time, I know that this would’ve been a good one. I feel like I hit the bare minimum to make this work honestly. Not through any fault of anyone other than time. The most weight I did on yoke was a pick and hold with 800lbs for like 15 seconds and did three runs of 50’ with 700lbs. A good bit of the training before that had been belt squat marches. So for this event, the order went by yoke height, shortest to tallest. This worked to my advantage for a few reasons. One was that I could see what I needed to do and the second was I could get in a warm-up that others may not have been able to do. As I mentioned, the implement was loaded with the sandbags for weight. So yoke was 400lbs empty and loading the sandbags and taking them out was a team effort so only warm-ups were with the empty yoke and other mobility stuff that I did to loosen up my back and hips and get my core firing. So my plan was that after the last person went, I’d do a pick with the loaded yoke so that I’d get an idea of what to expect and hopefully take that initial shock of holy shit this is crushing me over with as it was going to take several minutes to reset the course. I’m so glad I did as this thing felt insanely heavy. We were allowed to set our sandbags how we like before going and set grip. This is where I can excel. My goal here was to be as fast as possible on the sandbags so I had as much time left as possible to attempt moving the yoke. Picks would take a lot out of me so I was hoping to keep it to three at most depending on time. It didn’t feel bad now that I had felt it and I moved gingerly. Trying to not have any drops. My error for me was the shirt I wore. I had assumed the grip shirt would stick and it did but more to yoke than me. I should’ve remembered this from when I did yoke in 2018 where I had this same issue. So I was dealing with the yoke sliding down my back as well. Got a good bit of the way still and then had a set down at 20 seconds left. Unlikely I’d finish but I needed more distance to know I didn’t drop points here since no one else had finished so far. Got a bit further but didn’t waste effort going for a third pick with 5 seconds left. I had done enough with get 39’3” with the yoke, just under 5’ ahead of second. Knees were going to hate me after this. I was annoyed despite getting first as I feel even in my condition that I could’ve finished this with being smarter on the shirt situation.

The final event was the long awaited boat and truck pull. Not a truck or boat but both. Truck with a boat attached to it. As listed, it was to be a harnessed pull for 60’ with a 2” diameter rope with a 90 seconds time limit. So as with most pulls, it could be literally anything between a sprint and an unmovable object. Something I should add here is that we were told at the start of the yoke that there was a boardwalk curfew for 2PM or something and that we had to rush outside to do the truck pull right after the yoke. Seeing as how it was 1:50PM by this point, not sure how that would work. So I’m moving as fast as I can with being out of breath from being crushed by a yoke and wearing thick knee sleeves. Come to find out that the boardwalk patrol didn’t care a lick and there was no rush. So just trying to get things settled and ready. I had heard earlier that this was super light and that it was the same setup and weight for all the weight classes. Escalade with a small boat attached. It would at least look cool. It was on the boardwalk with the hotels, casinos and beach in the background. It at least had the spectacle aspect. Slowest time for the day was 26.75 seconds and the fastest time ended up being 13.5 seconds. Not sure if 50 or 60’ to be honest. Rope wasn’t 2” thick but that hardly mattered. Training had been mostly working the different approaches here with sled work and exer-genie. I felt ready but I’m not really built for drag races. Whatever, time to go. This again was based off entry form so I again went last. Not really much to observe here other than it was light and seemed to be listing to the left side from how people started. Light that people would be abandoning the rope. I took off my shirt as screw it, I’m at the shore and I might as well get some sun. Finally having some fun since the nightmare was going to be over shortly. I got set so that I’d have a good start to break the inertia and just kept going. Head down and working fast on the hands. Eventually I was moving too fast to keep my hands up with rope to have tension with like five seconds. I probably could’ve had time taken off if I had my hands outstretched as that was how they were calling time rather than it being from where the truck was. Ended up in first with 16.2 seconds but literally less than a second separated 1st through 4th here. Additionally as I mentioned, this was the same weight for all the classes so this time wouldn’t have one in other groups.

So there was a good bit of downtime waiting for the other groups to finish up even though I knew I had gotten second and was out first by three points. I think for me it was just relief I made it through the contest without needing to go to the ER or something. Body was aching and the stress and aches for this cycle didn’t make this a fun one. It felt like an obligation to compete and not pull out of the competition because I don’t like to quit. I like to go all in. If I was a normal person, I’d probably have taken a break after the break so to speak and not try and rush through things as if my best years are going to be gone by the stroke of midnight. I have to learn to adapt with what I got. I’m getting older, not recovering from things as fast as I used to and I have to adapt the athlete to what I can do. People were complimenting me all day and I’m not sure why but I guess people like me and what they see. Anytime someone asked me how I felt about an event or how I was feeling I told them I feel like crap. That’s not to say the venue or the event or anything was not ok. Though the fingal fingers thing coming apart and the clamps situation on that and dumbbells weren’t great. I still enjoyed things but I was down on myself for not being at 110%. I know that isn’t realistic. In either case, it is just good to be home and work on the next thing. At this point, next competition isn’t until March 2022 and it is local. Need to see what the damage is from this show and assess things but I’m thinking that an off season of 4-8 weeks may be needed.

October 5, 2021 – Week 12, Day 2

Mobility Prep
 
Deadlifts
135x5
205x2
205x2
205x2
205x2
205x2

Heel Elevated Goblet Squats
10x5
40x5
70x5
95x10
95x10
95x10

Step Ups w/ Band TKEs (8”, lb)/Band Goodmornings
40’sx15/15 – sbx15
40’sx15/15 – sbx15
40’sx15/15 – sbx15

Hollow Holds
bwx30 seconds
bwx30 seconds

Stretching 

Comments: Last workout involving weights for this training cycle. Trying to feel good and recover as best as I can for the competition. Starting to realize I’m actively nervous and not just subconsciously. Movement prep for today was a little different. Order of movements changed around and some for two times and some for three times. Used the weird wraps my dad had got me last week for the warm-up stuff. Again, not sure if they are the best for these or not. But I do notice knees feel better if I wear some kind of support on things. On to lifting stuff. Deadlifts from the floor again. Really light. 20lbs more than end of last cycle. Trying to focus on these and not have an oops like the last time where my back seized up on me. Think about pulling 700lbs. Set and pull with control. May not have done as slow an eccentric as previously. Right knee was bothering me a little on these. Not enough to hamper me. And possibly warming up some more could keep it ok. After that point it was the rep work stuff. As with the end of last training cycle, the next thing was 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 with the knee things but I think I needed to do  it to get those thoughts out of my head. Wore thin but tight knee sleeves for these. Knees still feel funky to me (and not like Earth, Wind & Fire) but this may just be what I got going forward. So next was a superset. Had a bit of this on Saturday with the pairing of hamstring stuff with the TKEs. This time though it was TKE step ups paired with the band gms. Now only real instructions I was given was light band. So that could mean light band tension or use a light band. I did the later seeing as how I was using a strong band for these the past two weeks. I felt like bodyweight was going to be too easy and honestly 40lbs in each had was pretty easy to do but needed something not too taxing as far as grip. Band gms are not fun haha. I will say I had less of a lower back pump this time around. I did have to take some breaks between supersets with how the gms were. My abs cramped up on the second set of them. Last bit for the session was hollow holds. Just two sets of 30 seconds. A little bit tougher than they usually are after the ab cramping but still quite easy. Workout was done quick enough that I still had to wait for my dinner to finish cooking so put stuff away and stretched before eating pot roast. Iced knees before bed.

October 4, 2021 – Week 12, Day 1

Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (Dumbbell with Fat Gripz Extreme)
35x1/1
35x1/1
35x1/1
35x1/1
35x1/1
35x1/1
35x1/1
35x1/1
35x1/1
35x1/1

Seated Axle Shoulder Presses (3 seconds negatives) w/ bands (+10lbs bottom/+29lbs top)
45x2
75x2
105x2
135x3
135x3
135x3
135x3
135x3

Half Kneeling Single Arm Band Pulldowns
sbx15/15
sbx15/15
sbx15/15

Paused Behind the Neck Strict Presses (3 seconds holds)/Band Face Pulls
45x10/lbx15
45x10/lbx15
45x10/lbx15

Hand Elevated Push-ups (11”)
bwx15
bwx15

Single Arm Band Triceps Pressdowns
abx20/20
abx20/20

Stretching

Comments: Week of the show. Winding down. Feel those nerves and anxiety. Trying to not let that take over things. Body aches don’t help matters as I feel like I’m not quite ready. If I had another month. If stuff just didn’t ache. Feeling like I should just not do the show. I have to remind myself that this is what happens. It happened the last contest. Deloading for competition sucks. Mental and physical stress. Knee is getting there but still not 100%. It at least hasn’t felt like it wants to explode recently. The day before, I did a ton of foam rolling for the upper back to try and get the left shoulder and neck to calm down as well as other stuff for the rest of the body. I do think that helped as I was finally able to “adjust” my neck and get some relief. Though still not feeling like 100% there either. So on to training. I wore a knee brace for this workout just to give more support and warmth to the knee. Just the right one. Also on the right side wore a compression cuff. Trying to keep things minimal for these next few sessions. Circus dumbbell stuff again. Really light. Advised to do 8-10 singles and work on the form and bracing like I should for a heavy lift. Leave the session feeling good about dumbbell. I setup my handle so that I had the weights spaced way out so that it was similar angle to how it will be with a big bell. I feel like these went ok. I could feel my right knee “clicking” on the dip for the left side but nothing really on the right side. I will be wearing my stiffest sleeves for this at the show. Inside for training in the garage. Seated axle pressing with bands again. Light stuff. Work up in doubles to 135lbs and do 5x3 with fairly short rests. I was told to press these fast and control the negative (as in didn’t have to do the usual 3 seconds) but I kept it that way so that reps remained consistent. This was easy but I was feeling some pressure on the ulnar nerve on the left side. Back was next but changed from the modified pull-ups to band work. One arm pulldowns. No holds or pauses, just 3x15. Highest band tension I have is the strong band so I just used that. Trying to think of pulling with the lats and locking the shelf for that side. Thinking circus dumbbell and some truck pull. Band tension was pretty light considering so I just did each set back to back so that fatigue made the last set within the difficulty range. Next was the superset of the btn presses with band face pulls. Back to doing just the bar and higher reps. Face pulls no modifications so back to doing them standing without pauses. Honestly, the bar stuff was right but I think the band tension too light for the face pulls. But it would be a big jump to the next tension so this worked out too. Thinking about opening up the shoulders. Push ups after that. Hand elevated. Two sets of 15 reps. Last time I’ve done these was to 18” with my jack stands and I did like 40 reps in one set so I lowered the height to the lowest setting to try and increase the difficult to be within parameters. Still pretty easy but honestly rougher on the shoulders compared to the other push-up variations I’ve been doing as of late. Possibly because those required more motor control so the irradiation made things feel better. Last thing bands for triceps. I knew that after last week that that band tension would work here. Left side still has some issues with control as far as the wrist rigidity but it is what it is at this point. Finished up with putting stuff away before eating and then stretching.

October 2, 2021 – Week 11, Day 4

Mobility Prep
 
Inverse Leg Curls
+220(ast)x10
+185(ast)x5
+150(ast)x10
+150(ast)x10

Safety Squat Bar Zercher Goodmornings
65x10
115x5
155x10
155x10
155x10

Spanish Squats (nylon strap)
bwx10
bwx10
bwx10

Standing Arm-Over-Arm Pulls (Exer-Genie)
4x60’
4x60’
4x60’

Lying Leg Curls/Paused Band TKEs (3 seconds holds)
90x15 – sbx15/15
90x15 – sbx15/15
90x15 – sbx15/15

Sled Drag Work (turf)
200x5 minutes

Stretching
 
Comments: First workout this week that truly felt like it was a deload session. I’ve been feeling stiff, worn and tired this week so I know I’m ready for things to wind down. The steel is ready for tempering. Tired and I kind of felt like I was moving in slow motion Friday as I didn’t really do anything besides work until after my shift was done as far as putting stuff away and getting food ready. I ended up sleeping in as my left shoulder and side of my neck was tight again. I’m not sure what is causing it and if it is originating in the neck, traps, shoulder or upper back or a combo. It’s not really painful, just annoying. It’s tense not loose. I guess all I can really do is continue to do soft tissue stuff and rest. So late start to the day. I realized when I was like 75% of the way out to the gym I forgot my phone so I didn’t have a way to record training or a way to check what my workout was. Luckily I had been reviewing it that morning before I left (I was also finishing up write-up for the Thursday workout) and I remembered it all (I wasn’t 100% sure). Low intensity day. Blood flow and pump deload.  I probably missed a lot of people that are normally there as I came in quite late in the early afternoon when usually I’m in the late AM. Mobility stuff was just the two exercises from two weeks ago. No knee braces but I brought all the different stuff just in case. Besides belts that is. Nothing I was doing was going to be so taxing on the midsection. I did order some compression cuffs for the forearms to see how those worked out. Seem to be good. So first real exercise being the inverse curls. Advised to do a weight that felt like a I had several reps in the tank. Warmed up with more reps compared to last week since weight assistance was going to be a good bit more so less jumps to get to work weight. Right knee is still feeling tender when pressure is applied. It’s a different feeling from what I was expecting. Not like a tendon aching but a muscle and nerve discomfort. Not from the movement I was doing, just the pressure of the knee into the hard foam pad. Hamstrings feeling tight. Not so much the muscles, again more tendons and ligaments. So from there on to zercher gms with the ssb. Really, really light weight suggested here. Wore the knee sleeves on my forearms like last time. Really easy stuff here but felt good. After that was Spanish squats. Same bodyweight with 3x10 and using a strap. Knee sleeves on more to keep the bruising from the strap down. No specification of heels raised so I did these with feet flat. I do wish I had video of this so I could see if I was doing the form on these right. As they have been, they seem to get better as I do the sets. Similar to inverse curls, they may be something to doing a warming up to them but I’m really not sure how or what that would be considering I’m using just bodyweight right now. I do wonder if having something to hold on to so that I can really sit back and not feel like I may fall due to balance could be helpful. But again, don’t know if that will defeat the purpose or how to really implement that. Next up was kind of the only really event specific training for the day. Standing arm-over-arm pulls with RPE 6-7. Three sets to get the form work in for the upper body part of the truck pull. I tried to remember that I’d done on these and I think what I thought I’d done for decent work was “6lbs” (turns out “8lbs” is my best so far) and decided to do “4lbs”. Exer-genie can be fickle and setting up isn’t too bad if it is the same tension for all the sets. I had issues with it the first two sets that made it tougher than it should’ve been. On the first set, the lead line got tangled with about 5’ remaining so it wouldn’t budge and I had to go up to it to get it fixed and then pulled the remaining distance. The second set the lead line kept getting caught on stuff but it wasn’t tangled so kept pulling until done. Last set was a perfect run as nothing got caught on anything. So good note to end on there. Next was super set for the knees. Well hamstrings and then band TKEs with pauses. I initially thought I’d have to do the leg curls on the machine and then go into the other part of the gym to setup the band TKEs but I realized there was a post under the leg curl machine that was the perfect height to attach the band so I didn’t have much downtime between exercises. Knee sleeves down on the curls to pad the ankles and then up on the TKEs to minimize bruising. Used only 90lbs on the leg curls as these were hard last week. Keeping things light. Band TKEs felt good. Trying to drive with heel. On the last set, I had an idea of really putting that into effect with lifting the foot but not the heel so that I had to put all force into driving with the heel. Felt a harder contraction. Maybe that is something, maybe it isn’t. Last item was 5 minutes of sled drag work. Been a little bit haha. So I figured less weight and use the turf to get a good workout in. Well the larger area was initially being used by a group so I setup on the smaller section. They of course finished just as I started. So my small area required me to turn around a good bit but it was still good. I went home after cleaning things up as I wasn’t 100% sure I did everything I was supposed to do for this workout. Luckily I did remember it all so I then drank a post workout shake and stretched. 

September 30, 2021 – Week 11, Day 3

Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses
Plate Loaded Dumbbell with Fat Gripz Extreme
70x1 L
70x1 R
80x1 L
80x1 R
90x1 L
90x1 R
100x1 L
100x1 R
110x1 L
110x1 R
120x1 L
120x1 R
Circus Bell
130x1 L
140x1 L
150x1 L
160x1 L
170x1 L
177x0 L
5 Seconds in Rack
137x2 L
137x2 L
137x2 L
Circus Bell
130x1 R
137x1 R
144x1 R
152x1 R
157x0 R
5 Seconds in Rack
121x2 R
121x2 R
121x2 R

Yoke Strict Presses (forehead height) 
90x3
130x3
165x3
195x4
215x4
235x4
215x11

Chaos Band Push-ups (5 seconds negatives, feet elevated 8”)/ Paused Inverted Ring Rows (2 second holds)
bwx15/bw+20x10
bwx12/bw+20x10
bwx12/bw+20x10

Paused Dumbbell Lateral Raises (2 second holds)/Paused Incline Bench Dumbbell Rear Delt Flyes (2 second holds)
15’sx12/10’sx12
15’sx12/10’sx12

Stretching
 
Comments: I was again a bit surprised that this workout called for pushing things a bit this close to contest. Last contest things worked out near perfect so continuing to trust the process. I am feeling a bit beat from this cycle of training. Things had to be adjust a lot from the original plan with the arm issues and then compensating for it elsewhere added new stresses that didn’t really have before. But I’m getting older and recovery will continue to wane and while I’m relatively young, not so young with competing. Been doing some form of hard weight training for over two decades and specifically competing in strongman for the past 13yrs. Coming up on my 40th career competition. Just have to continue to adapt. So for today, the workout started off with the circus dumbbell. Plan being work up to a smooth single and then do supplemental exercises after that based off percentage of that lift. Advised to work up in smaller to moderate jumps. I was hoping things were clicking this week after last week seemed to be a return to form after a lot of issues getting back into the groove I had at the start. I have to remember that I broke shit and injured shit and it’s not normal to be putting this kind of strain on the body at the best of times. I’m never satisfied with my best. It needs to be better. A lot better. Pride in my achievements is fleeting and short lived. Which is good to motivate but terrible for lasting happiness in the moment. So find joy in the progress and the process. As long as that happens. As long as it makes sense. So for the dumbbell, I figured I’d stick to just the dumbbell handle with weights added rather than swap out different dumbbells until I got heavy enough for the empty circus bell. Keep things consistent. 70lbs felt tougher than I would’ve liked as the first weight so instead of taking 20lbs jumps up to the big dumbbell, I stuck with 10lbs jumps. Left side seemed to be feel good after that change and was feeling on point. Right side just didn’t feel too comfortable this session. Maybe the knee issue still on the right knee with how I press. But it didn’t feel like that, it was more the positioning just felt stiff and tight. Immobile. Not too concerned at the start as there is like 0% chance I will use that side at the competition. After 120lbs, went to focus on just the left side to start. Cleans were feeling good and elbow felt packed. Trying to settle and brace and not just go. I know I can’t do that for the heavy stuff. I tend to like to keep in motion as it makes it feel lighter. You stop when you die. I was really hoping that I felt like 190lbs or so would go up but I knew not to push that. I just knew if I could do that weight, I had an exceedingly good shot at 205lbs at contest. It already was a slim chance with the 6 weeks of direct training lost and then coming back with changes in form. 170lbs the weight went up well enough but I knew that I wasn’t doing anything over 180lbs and having it be smooth with how the lockout wasn’t one single movement like it was with the other reps working up. But I still thought I had 7lbs more in me today. But I didn’t. First attempt dip was too shallow and I readjusted. I should’ve stopped there as it wasn’t going to be a “smooth single” with a missed attempt. Refocused and went for bigger lower body drive and I got the height but it went out and away and trying to stabilize it caused my right oblique and lat to “shift” and I put it down. I get that in that side only sometimes when I push it on overhead and get off center. It’s not painful but it scares me. I think it has to do from scar tissue related to an oblique tear from about a decade ago. Could also be related to potential inflexibility in that area as it has only been acting up on me since 2018 to present and nothing before then so it could be something different. Even if I tell myself it isn’t a big deal, it still annoys me to miss a weight. Especially one I’ve done before. My best since the hard reset of 2016 is 187lbs but I did 180lbs for 5 in competition when that was my best. Circus dumbbell just seems tricky now. It is one of those lifts where I can miss it and come back and get it. I think part of it with overhead is from my younger days reading about giving it more than one try if miss because it can be form issues and not a strength issue. A mixture of a good and bad habit. I have to remember that 170lbs is the most I’ve been able to do this training cycle and it is the most I’ve done on circus dumbbell since 2018. So dropped 20% for the supplemental stuff. Clean and holds but adding in presses. Hold in the rack position for 5 seconds, bracing and then press. I didn’t think much of it at first but man was I wrong as that first rep was almost not even a good rep. Definitely found a weak point that is glaring here. The hold isn’t tough but my ability to press and stabilize from that is greatly hampered. I did try after that first set without the elbow sleeve to see if that changed anything as I fear that it is still pushing the dumbbell away from my body. Honestly, not sure if it did much of anything to change how I did. If anything, it may have made it easier to keep in line slightly but my lockout wasn’t as crisp. Could just be from not working without the sleeve up to this weight or just that it is a thing I have from the elbow injury. On to the right side. I knew this wasn’t going to go well for me on this side. Part of it being not using this side to compete and partly from not lifting as heavy as I wanted to be successful with on the left. But the form just felt all off today. I went with smaller jumps as I felt that getting even slightly above what I did last week was going to be a challenge. I’m really not sure what was up with this today. I was shocked that 157lbs didn’t happen. I cleaned it and it just felt off and put it down. Tried again and just felt the entire shoulder girdle and socket just shift as I had it on my shoulders and couldn’t really get anything into it. I don’t get it as I did 160lbs no problem for seven singles last week. This is 30lbs under my lifetime best with this side I just missed. I was super annoyed that I had to use the plateloaded dumbbell for the hold and presses because 20% off made the weight to use less than my empty circus dumbbell. I kept the elbow sleeve on just to keep the joints warm as feeling like crap. I had missed rep attempt on the second set and had to retake it. Not my day for the right side. I think I need to be better with expectations and adjust plans accordingly when it comes to exercises I haven’t done in a while or at least not pushed to the high points within the last 6 months or so. First week in with 160lbs on my left side felt just right and I assumed it was around 80% when that may not be accurate. I had made a new PR list after my injury in 2016 that kept me out of doing stuff for 7 months so that I wasn’t so focused on coming back to my best from before. So I should perhaps think of these as my bests and use percentages of them for training maxes based off the situation. That would hopefully lead to less heartache and better progress. The other thing is that maybe weekly hard stuff on circus dumbbell might be too much for me. At least it seems like it could be an issue with both sides being able to recover from it fast enough and efforts made. Every other week hard in the past seemed to work well enough for me but this has been a very unique situation with fracturing and spraining stuff and then coming back. And again, could be not basing working weights off what I can actually do and not what I used to do as well. I do think the form work stuff has been helpful though. Anyways, back to training. It was so dark out at this point. Circus dumbbell is a time vampire for sure, especially when working both sides. So the rack press situation again, using my yoke on the tables on the patio. This time it was do 3x4 with the same weights as last time with 5lbs added and then do a max rep set with the second weight. I wasn’t sure how these would go seeing how the circus dumbbell stuff on the one side seemed to be very poor. I could feel the oblique thing as well doing these so I was cautious about overdoing it here. I was paranoid that this was feeling too easy warming up. Turns out I had it one setting higher than last time so I lowered it down for the work sets. That made a difference. These do feel good. Down set I was hoping to get like 8 reps. Goal was leave 1RIR. Ended up getting 11 reps. So that was at least a positive. Again, I just left that stuff outside on the patio for the next day so I could move on to the rest of the workout. Into the garage. Push-ups and inverted rows again. Same as last time. I decided on the rows that I’d do 20lbs for all three sets. The push-ups started off easy enough. But second set felt a lot harder and I came up 1 rep short of what I did the week before. Third set was slightly easier and I was able to match what I did the week before. This might be a first with not getting at least an extra rep overall added with the push-ups when I’ve done them for volume. It could be that this was my first time this cycle not using the wrist wrap for the left hand so maybe that affected things a little. The rows were tough but good. I felt I had better control this week with the holds and contractions. Final item of the night was dumbbells for the shoulders. Laterals and rear delts. Same as last time. But not really. I wanted to try a little more weight on these as no band stuff afterwards and I was annoyed with not getting more reps on the push-ups and the circus dumbbell stuff still. So I used 15lbs kettlebells for the laterals and the 10lbs dumbbells for the rear delts. Really tough. The kettlebell stuff was at least decent but I need to get stronger at the rear delts as this was absolute limits of what I can do on those with holds. So many things that need work. So little time. It was dark and late and I wanted to eat so the stuff stayed out in the garage overnight for future Craig to take care of.