June 21, 2023 – Week 15, Day 2

Lower Body Banded Deadbugs (3 second holds)/Bird Dogs (3 second holds)
mbx10/10 – bwx10/10
mbx10/10 – bwx10/10

Heel Elevated Goblet Squats
15x15
15x15

Band Goodmornings
lbx20
lbx20

T-Spine Reaches/Banded Lat Stretches (5 seconds contract/stretch)
bwx10/10 – lbx30/30 seconds
bwx10/10 – lbx30/30 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: Work was dumb this week so far. By that I mean I can do work but the office was experiencing internet issues most of Tuesday and Wednesday. Just another reason why working from home is better in that I use my own internet and don’t have these system problems. Just gave everyone portable devices to make it easier for offsite people to work onsite but don’t think to do the reverse when something like this happens. Just a lot of frustrating stupid stuff. Promises being only as good as the person that makes them and as long as they are there. Otherwise lol to that. But trying to not be dragging into stupid stuff with competition this weekend. Off work Friday (I’ve done Monday if I had known back in December it would be two days and that I’d have to come into the office Tuesday all day). Also have like 6 days off in July besides the 4th as well. They going to miss Craig for a bit. Most time I’ve taken off since I had to stay home for like a week due to the flu and being on jury duty. I know my work won’t get done while I’m out and if it does, likely will be done all wrong. But enough of that. Thinking about contest and then training after that. I am noticing having a harder time concentrating on going over the motions in my head while I’m out walking or going to bed like I sometimes have done. I did that a good bit near the end of last prep for PA Dutch. But that doesn’t mean I’m not still focused in my own way. Had a dream about showing up and stones were in a crater in the parking lot and I went to test lift it. Also stopped to double check that my registration was up to day (it’s good through 2025 haha). This workout was kind of a combination of things as usually there is a lower body workout and then sometimes another light upper body workout. Keep things moving and not getting tight and stiff. I think part of it is the stress built up the last week peaking and because I will need to travel the day before. First thing was a superset I’ve done before in some capacity but not exactly. Deadbugs and bird dogs supersetted has been a thing I’ve done for mobility stuff at times even when not programmed. Find it is a good way to get the core and lower body active and safe. The change being more reps even with holds and the deadbugs being done with a band on the non-moving side. Drew was the example for the video. The deadbugs were tough with the band being part of it. Definitely the hardest exercise of the session and the past three workouts before this. Bird dogs were easy. Had a slight interruption from my parents stopping by so I got a little bit longer rest before finishing up the second round. But I wasn’t too bummed as those deadbugs were challenging. Next was goblet squats. Option was light weight or bodyweight and heels elevated if I felt like it. I felt like doing some weight and elevating the heels made the most sense. No knee sleeves (or any support gear) to get things moving and seeing how my joints felt. Plan being RPE 3 2x10-15. Took really short break between sets. Felt better as I went. Kind of the same thing with the band goodmornings. I’ve done strong bands on these before and still felt they were easy but sticking to lower stuff just to get things moving. Getting the band around the neck and off the neck would be the most taxing thing and it would be for the shoulders if anything. Again, RPE 3 for 2 sets but more reps. Got done quick here. Last thing was upper body mobility. The t-spine rotations and paired with banded lat stretches. I’ve not done more than one set of the t-spine rotations so wasn’t sure how those would feel. Lot of snaps and pops that first set and reps. Shoulders were feeling tense on the lat stuff. No real difference in the t-spine stuff second round other than no pops and lats/shoulders seemed better on the stretches. Put stuff away and stretched before cooking dinner. The work is done. Just need to show up.

June 19, 2023 – Week 15, Day 1

Bottom Up Kettlebell Presses/Dumbbell Pullovers (3 seconds stretch)/Cobra Stretches (5/15)
15’sx10/20x10/bwx3

Standing Dumbbell Presses (neutral grip)
40’sx8
40’sx8
40’sx8

Band Rows
ab’sx20
ab’sx20

Overhand Band Pullaparts/Band Dislocates/Underhand Band Pullaparts
mbx15/mbx10/mbx15

Overhead Band Triceps Extensions
µb’sx30

Stretching
 
Comments: Managed to sleep in Sunday and do recovery stuff. But would need to be up and do stuff so that I could wake up early for Monday. Not for work but to do stuff. My friends wanted to have early lunch at a place so I made that work. Food was good but not what I’d usually eat for a midday meal. I tend to feel a little off when I do and save the more substantial stuff for my dinner so I can afford to feel a little more full. But I made the best of that and attempted to get myself feeling ready to train about my usual time. Light stuff for this week and I think only two workouts since leaving Friday to go out to the competition. Things ended up going pretty quickly. I was initially thinking of doing stuff outside but I figured that I could still fit in the garage even if it was overhead stuff being done. Mobility stuff that has been standard for the viking press of pressing/pullovers/stretch were back to doing in that order as it was just one run through of everything. Definitely notice a difference in the stretch from doing them after the first two exercises vs doing it first. Next was pressing. Choices were to do standing dumbbell pressing with neutral grip or to use swiss bar with chaos band weights. Something that was a strict press that was easy but required some stability needs. Since the primary was the dumbbells and much easier to setup and go through with it I went with those. 40lbs dumbbells fit the bill. Only to be like RPE 3. Plan being 3x6-8 with 2-3mins rest. It took a bit to make myself take that long of rest for how easy these felt. But the left shoulder was feeling a bit crunchy as it were. Maybe just how things are feeling or maybe trying to get a slice of sweet potato that slid under the oven was more effort than I should’ve expended the day before. Things felt easier as I went. I held the lockout a little on the last rep of the second and third set. I wasn’t exactly going straight up and down; trying to keep things in the viking press plan and have my back and hips in the same position. That was it for weights for the session and the rest of it was just bands. Band rows. 2x15-20 at RPE 3-5. Average bands have worked here before. Anchor point of my dip stand would also work for this tension. I was initially just kind of doing them to do them but I did start to change up hand position and treat it similar to how I do with inverted rows with having it more of an arc row motion that isn’t rigid and is a bit more 3-d in approach as far as the back muscles and the rotation of shoulders. Got a little bit of a pump in the arms on the second set. Probably from taking shorter rests. Pull aparts with the bands after that. These it was noted to do with a micro or mini. Indication was to do two sets of 15 reps with the first overhand and the second underhand grip. But to do band dislocates for 10 reps between. So really like a circuit. The pull aparts were quick with the ROM and the dislocates took longer due to the ROM. The dislocates felt good on the shoulders. The left shoulder was feeling a little tense/cranky on the pull aparts. So not too pleased with that but hopefully rest and soft tissue work I’ll be good by show time. Last thing was triceps with bands. Again, indicated to be mini or micro here. Just one set of 20-30 reps. I went with the micros here. Felt like nothing (once I got the hand position figured out) and was good. I got through this workout really quick at just under 20 minutes. Put stuff away and stretched before eating a roast. One more training session and short (and hopefully less stressful) week of work to go.

June 17, 2023 – Week 14, Day 4

Sandbag Tosses (10’ away)
30x1
30x1
35x1
40x1
30x1/35x1/40x1
30x1/35x1/40x1

Banded GHD Back Extensions (around neck, doubled)
abx5
abx5
abx5

One Legged Kettlebell Romanian Deadlifts (opposite side)
44x5/5
70.5x12/12
70.5x12/12

Banded Step Ups with TKEs (12” box)
lbx15/15
lbx15/15

Hip Harness Backwards Tire Drags
148x125’ (60 seconds)

Stretching
 
Comments: So a positive at this time I think is that I’m handling my rage quit day much better I think than when it happened leading up to Nationals. Granted that was little further out but I skipped a workout entirely which I’ve only done once because I fractured my elbow in 2021 and didn’t have an alternative program setup on such short notice. But I was feeling better stress wise but even when you admit it out loud, there is still recoil. Like a slight eye twitch and having a lot of tension/pressure in the upper back and neck. You also tend to notice all the little things going on with your body from pretty much pushing things for 6 months straight. I worked through lunch at work to kind of get things on track and keep a good pace going as it was going to be a three-day weekend and I’d only be working 3 days next week (still going to be stressful). Trying to keep a balance by just shutting things down when my time ends and starts with work. Maintenance needed for the upkeep. Had a nice walk after work with it raining just a little. Made sure I got a decent amount of soft tissue work done and had a large and tasty Mississippi roast for dinner. Weather was to be good the next day so I was fine with sleeping in for this short training session planned. I didn’t really want to drive out but I had reason to related to sandbag. Any plans I had of sleeping in past my work time were disrupted by my neighbor’s deciding that 8AM on a Saturday was the perfect time to have their crappy fence replaced. Drive out wasn’t to be that bad as no construction but there was still that congestion around the usual area. Even though I got up earlier, I kind of took my time getting ready to get thoughts on paper and get affairs in order and plans as far as what I still needed to do for this week. I ended up being there on the tail end for most of the people leaving. I did get to see some friendly dogs so that was a plus. No split squats to warm up. Right into bag toss. I did do some warming up beyond what I’ve been doing with the kettlebell weights on the knees and modified Cossack squat stretch. Some hand assisted split squats and stretch. I’ve kind of been against static stretching at the start of training because it can dampen contractile force but there is a trade off in that it can allow for better positioning and movement. Got bag toss setup. I had driven out because two reasons; one to return the 30lbs toss bag so that people training for upcoming shows with that can use it to warm up and the other being that if I felt good with bag toss that I could go heavier and test things out. Bag toss options were to either do 6x1 EMOM or to do 2x3 with 80-100% of the first three bags in the medley at the show. See how I felt but if I did do 2x3, it would be the lower end as I didn’t want to go over 40lbs here. Either was fine. I wanted to do it on this setup as well since the video for the demonstration showed that the bags would be going left to right as opposed to right to left like how I’ve usually trained things. Not a big difference but that way was not an automatic action for me comparatively. Especially since during one of the early weeks when I was testing all the different positions, running from the left side out was the worst variation for me. Either option would get some practice in (could get more run ups with the singles but wouldn’t get any transition practice done). So I did the run outs for all tosses beyond the warming up stuff I did. That first toss I felt off and was thinking that maybe I just do 30lbs all day. I was slow on the hop back and my lower body felt stiff. I rested a bit and went at it again and this time it was on point so I moved on from there. Did singles for the other two bags in the planned series and set things up. I was tempted to bug someone for assistance but decided it wasn’t worth it. First run I hit the support leg on the left side with the first bag on the hop back and swing with the sand bag. No issues the other bags. Second set I did some little things to make it feel like competition. Went to each sandbag and made sure the sand was at the bottom and even and the handles were facing me. Then did a little acknowledgement of the imaginary crowd and officials (while having the audio play in my head of the call out and commands). I hesitated a little with the first bag that time and that slowed me down slightly but I made up for it with the other two bags. So that was finished and went well. Rest of the workout was more in line with the workout from Thursday as far as being light and low volume and movement focused. The next exercise was to be something that was working hip hinge. This had been the zercher band goodmorning stuff with the swiss ball. Thinking was that was too intense and would stress the upper back and traps that we want to heal up and be fresh for competition. GMs with bar on back also option but might be too much lower back stress considering how pulls went on Wednesday so the ideal exercise was back extensions with band tension for explosive reps. Either holding the band or around the neck. I figured I’d do the neck variation so as not using the arms and keep the pivot point the same. This was a lot of band tension but I could move it fast to the point of completion fast so it worked out. Wasn’t too stressful. Next thing was one leg Romanian deadlfits. Opposite loading. It has been a bit since done these. And been longer since unilateral hip hinge exercise. Especially without some way to be bracing the non-working leg. Most unilateral stuff has had less balance component lately. There was someone in the dumbbell area and I didn’t want to be around people I didn’t know so I did these with a kettlebell that was probably a better option anyways. The weight was fine (kind of surprised it was moving this easy) but balance was definitely an issue. Balance stabilizing requirement and the offloading were definitely going to recruit/wake up some stuff that had been dormant and quiet until now. Of the things I did this day, probably the most winding. Then it was more unilateral stuff but with knee extension. Step ups with TKE. I’ve usually done these lower heights but decided to do 12” box. I was allowed to do anything that emphasized gait and/or unilateral that felt good on the knees. I wanted to see how these felt on the knees. These and the rdls I did without knee sleeves. And felt fine enough without so that was good (only really wanted to wear them from the bag toss since I’ll be wearing them at contest). I think that removing one of the more intensive knee/quad stretches from the post workout routine is helping with the knee joint recovering better between sessions. Last thing was conditioning exercise of choice. Drew feels that this show doesn’t really require much in the way of sustained effort beyond the stone to shoulder and that is only a minute and I’ve already done two sessions of working the full minute and then some for both the stone and viking press. So the suggested option was just to do a minute of backwards sled dragging but could do longer time or do backwards treadmill pushes for like 2 sets of 5 minutes if I felt that would feel good on my knees. Seeing as how my knees were feeling good with the previous exercise, I went with the sled drag option. But using the tire sled so the friction made it hard to go fast. Hope being that I wouldn’t run out of space to get 60 seconds of work done. Managed to get that done and I felt fine after the 60 seconds. I’ve done a good bit of these and my tolerance has improved a good bit. Almost relaxing at this point. Tire ended up weighing a good bit more than I thought it did. I ended up talking the ear off Andrew before I started stretching and then did the same to George when he showed up after I finished up stretching. Got home and my new credit card had arrived so I spent like an hour getting stuff setup and stuff switched over before spending an even with my family. Iced knees before bed.

June 15, 2023 – Week 14, Day 3

T-Spine Reaches
bwx10/10

Andrew Lock Shoulder Big 3’s
10’sx10-10-10

Single Band Arm Archer Rows
lbx15/15
lbx15/15

Chaos Band Push-ups
bwx10
bwx10
bwx10

Single Arm Overhead Band Triceps Extensions
µbx25/25
µbx25/25

Bretzel Stretches
30/30 seconds
30/30 seconds

Stretching
 
Comments: As the past post would indicate, it hadn’t been a good week or day up to this point for me. Very stressed and irritable and then bad stuff happened all at once. The frustration such that I had the conversation in my head about dropping out of the competition and retiring from competing. Been a bit since I did that. About the same time as far as being out from Nationals when I had those feelings and I managed to have my best placing there ever by a good bit. So I guess recovering from that relies on my gaslighting myself. Only way I can see it as me still doing this when I’ll read of people saying that they are too beat up after this much time or need to take PEDs to get anywhere. And here I am trudging along drug free. Refusing to accept that this is my best and I’ve yet to peak. But it does have me taking a step back to look at things and potentially reconsider how things are done. I continue to be good at my good events but the gap with my bad events despite improvements seems to grow. And I seem to have to do more stuff to combat joint issues for the neck, shoulders and knees. Or at least having to be me more cognizant of them (like sleeping a certain way for the neck). Like having a high reliance on knee sleeves at this point for things like squats. But not sure what the solution to that is. As far as thoughts going into this competition, I feel that I’m where I can be as far as things like stone, bag toss, frame and Hercules hold. Press I have no idea as it has been going off of estimates from calculations rather than “real weight” so that I think is the most concerning for me as I feel like it isn’t anywhere good enough. Deadlift I knew I’d be behind and while improvement, I don’t feel it is enough here either to hit my goal with how the last session felt. Putting down the words of the thoughts so that maybe acknowledging those things in a way lessens the stress burden I hold inside myself and gives me some power/control of that. As might be expected, the remaining training sessions have been lowered in intensity so that I can recover in all aspects. There seems to be a trend where about 2 weeks out that my stress hits a detrimental limit and need to work on that as far as dropping the stress of sessions so that I can stay as optimal as I can with the work/training/life balance. This workout was listed as optional because of the blow up and idea was more to keep movement and blood flow stuff but to focus on getting myself to feel healthy in aspects not measured by weight lifted. I felt it was important to do some moving around and as an indicator that I can move forward with things. T-spine rotation to start things off. Not a change from before here. Still feel good. I might have done an extra rep on one side by mistake as distracted and focusing on just feel rather than a number. Lock Big 3 up next. No holds beyond just a brief one so I was able to do these with minimal rest between the different angles/lifts and stick to the same weight and reps. A variation of band row was next. This was kind of a different version of the alternating band rows. Idea being keeping thoracic mobility good. Split stance and rowing with rotation but keeping it to the upper body and core. No hip shifts. I think I got the hang of it. It was a little tricky to focus on all aspects and I think I got better as I went for the second set, like actively reaching with the other hand to increase the stretch. Moving on to chaos band push-ups. This took the longest of setting up but that was on me. These were to be 2-3x10-15 at low RPE (everything was to be RPE 3-5) and I usually when I do these use multiple bands so I can have a set point and not worry about the bands sinking under my weight so much. But I wanted to have just one band so that there was maximum wobble for the stability purposes. So I needed to set the band a lot higher than usual to get things set up and that was some trial and error. With how these felt, I stuck to 3x10 here. Felt better as I went. Only exercise I took actual break between sets (like 90 seconds). Triceps after that with bands. Single arm overhead stuff but no stretch component. Notes indicated to do 2x15-25 and use a micro band so as it is like nothing. I elected to play around with the hand position since the band tension was so light and even with a thin band, it didn’t put pressure/cut into my hand. Did the first set pronated and the second set supinated. To put emphasis on different heads of the triceps. Last thing was a stretch I’ve not done. I guess kind of but not this way. I had to relook at it a few times to get it in my head the picture of how this would go. I guess this was a combo of thoracic, hip and glute stretch. ROM increased a good bit by the second round. Put stuff away and got started on dinner. Workout took less than 30 minutes. Stretched before bed as well. Just need to get through Friday and then I got a longer weekend and a short week of work as taking off Friday to travel out to competition.

June 14, 2023 – Week 14, Day 2

13” Axle Jack Stand Pulls (straps)
115x2
205x2
295x2
385x2
455x1
525x1
575x1

Dimel Deadlifts (straps)
225x3
275x3
315x12

Paused Safety Squat Bar Squats (2 seconds)
65x3
115x3
155x3

Comments: This didn’t go well. I was more stressed out than I thought I was and it just all came to surface during training. I had a half day of work because I had to reschedule a dentist appointment for this time as they no longer were open until 6PM anymore and if I wanted one later in the day, it would have to be right before Thanksgiving. The appointment only takes about an hour but with how stressed I am at work, it didn’t feel conducive to come back to work. Probably for the best as when I got out of the dentist I had a text about a family member dealing with a medical emergency. So I was a bit distracted. Then I tried get gas as on E and pump said my account was closed. So called my back card and it was locked again. But for good reason. As it appears while I was training Saturday that someone tried to buy over $2000 in merchandise from Bloomingdales. Thankfully no of those transactions were approved. But that means I don’t have a card while I wait for a new one since this one is now compromised. Already waiting on credit card which hasn’t shown up yet. So cash poor at the moment. I did some mobility stuff for the knees and hamstrings before getting things setup. I was really considering not doing the workout as I had not eaten my usual meals and was really stressed but I felt some relief with getting the card situation figured out and set to do the workout. Even if I didn’t really understand it. See this is the last pull session and for some reason it was the heaviest of the cycle. Essentially working up to something that about my 2nd attempt. It has seemed to work with stuff in the past but I feel that I do better if the heaviest session isn’t as close. The times where I feel it did work out was more because showed up to the contest and the pick height was increased by 3” from what I was training. But every training cycle is an adjustment on what is too much and what is not enough. Plan was work up to three singles to act like my attempts but one spot removed and then a triple with about 10% less weight. I was feeling pretty good. Taking plate jumps as might be similar to contest warming up doing doubles. Then adjusted for singles. First true pull being 525lbs. It felt fine. 575lbs was next. I got set and I was expecting it to feel good. It didn’t feel as easy as I wanted it to. It was tough enough that 625lbs didn’t make sense to attempt. I could’ve got it but what was the point if it was a near max or max effort when the show is in 10 days? So I just decided to stay there and treat it like I did my opener and called it. So not in a good frame having to make that adjustment. Even when necessary, it eats at me making changes to the plan as written and not by accident. So next thing was dimel deadlifts. No bands. Workout up to 315lbs for a set of 6-12 reps as long as low effort and snappy. There was the option to do iso pulls with the singles and then not do these but I knew it would take way too much setup for it and I felt it was going to be too much to recover from. Bands just seem to feel better on these for me. But I did them and that was that. Then it was time for paused squats with the ssb. This was another one I wasn’t really understanding. Especially with how sharp things seemed to drop on squat stuff the last training cycle when I had hit my limit stress and weight wise from other stuff. This was to be slightly more weight than last week as written for 3x3 with 1-2ct pauses but it did indicate to autoregulate so that things felt good. Like change up the exercise and lower weight. I was already planning to do like 50lbs less than what was written just because I felt like I had gone too heavy two weeks ago on these and just wasn’t seeming to recover on these with other stuff. I was feeling ok warming up on these. But then I got to 205lbs and just felt like more than I wanted to deal with on my back and reracked it. And then proceeded to have a tantrum hit the trashcan with my belt and knock over stuff. At one point chucking a 25lbs plate. Just a lot of emotions boiling up about everything. At that point the workout was done, not going to try and push through this and didn’t think it was wise to do the accessory stuff when I needed to get my head right and recover. I did some decompression for my back (I was holding a lot of tension) and put stuff away and laid on the ground for a bit to calm down. No stretching, just going to drink my dinner (protein shake) as it would take too long to cook up dinner and I knew I needed sleep. I did get news that my family member was checked out and doing better as well as had week review with my coach and training is now focused on getting myself recovered and centered for the competition. Went to bed really early for me to get much needed rest. To calm my fevered brain as my dad would say.

June 12, 2023 – Week 14, Day 1

Cobra Stretches (5/15)/Bottom Up Kettlebell Presses/Dumbbell Pullovers (3 seconds stretch)/Cobra Stretches (5/15)
bwx3/15’sx10/20x10/bwx3

Sandbag Tosses (Bottle Drill)
30x1
30x1
30x1
30x1
30x1
30x1

Viking Presses w/ bands (strict, facing away, hands 11” down handles, +17lbs/25lbs)
empty(26)x2
+45(59)x2
+90(92)x2
+135(125)x1
+180(158)x1
+200(172.5)x1
+225(191)x1
+250(209)x1
+225(191)x2
+225(191)x4
+202.5(174)x4
+202.5(174)x4

Swiss Bar Chest Supported Rows
110x3
162x3
214x3
264x8
264x8

Defranco Band Pullaparts (2 second holds)
mbx15
mbx15

Incline Band Tate Presses (1 second holds)
lbx5
lb+(4)mbx4/lb+(3)mbx5/lb+(2)mbx5/lb+mbx6

Stretching
 
Comments: Even when I’m aware of the upcoming changes to my routine, it is still stressful, even when it is something I want to do. Like visiting family. It cases me stress and I don’t like that it does but it doesn’t seem to be something that I can completely resolve. Just like how I can’t stop the nerves from coming when competing even though I’ve done over 40 competitions over more than a decade. And when upcoming things arise, little annoyances seem to magnify and intensify how they affect me. I feel that I’m becoming more aware of this in the past two years. Monday at work was dumb and never seeming to get caught up. Rain storm was here most of the day and I unfortunately had things I needed to do outside for training. I was trying to think how best to “water proof” things and rationalizing that I’d only need the viking press setup for this workout likely. But waiting it out seemed the best thing as the rain did stop and it didn’t come back. There were some nerves going into this week of training. I’m tired and I worry this is too much to be at my best at the show. It has seemed to work out for me with these peaks. Sometimes how the body feels is a lie. Mobility stuff same as last week with it being reduced and I kept it to being the sandwich. Can really tell how stiff stuff is that first set of cobra poses and how things loosen up for the second round of it. Outside for the bag toss drill. Stuck to 30lbs and bottle drill. Don’t want to be overdoing things. Goal being 6-8 tosses. Went with less.  I didn’t feel satisfied with how they were feeling until the last two. First was just a little soft touch and the next two had good power but I was launching myself forward which means energy lost upward. Fourth toss got a little sideways with uneven release. Keeping this light and just trying to get things lose for the hip snatch and drive. And getting my ankles to help out. Viking press yet again and a strict press week. I wasn’t sure if this was going to be a heavy day focus or not but figured it would be something like 80%. Not quite. It seemed the plan was to work up to a top set of 3-4 reps working up in doubles and then singles. Something leaving 1RIR. Oh and with bands. I hadn’t quite thought about how to setup bands on this setup as it isn’t as straightforward as the barbell rig I used when facing the weight. I initially thought I had a good setup that had a band for each side with me standing on the bands linked together. It felt like a decent amount of tension and it would be fully added to weight in hand vs the weight on the arm calucation. It felt tough but I was still moving the weight. So I initially was thinking that I’d probably need to do 225lbs added and got set for it and the single was easy so I thought too light so I went for 250lbs added, thinking the 225lbs would be the down sets (2x4). I got set and it felt like the false start situation I had with the push pressing last week. I reset and got a rep with it but when I went for the second I could tell this was a big nope. Great. So dropped it back down to 225lbs and went at that and I got two reps before getting stuck going for the third with the implement wanting to tip to the left. Partially my fault as I used the big bumper plates as I was worried about the rain. I realized that the setup with the bands wasn’t working out as the bands would move and twist. So after making an adjustment, I had no further issues with the exercise. Other than a lot of pressure on body doing these and having to steady myself after the set until lightheadedness went away. Just annoyed that I felt I was screwing everything up with the missed reps this close to competition. So I was a bit frustrated with heavy training this close and new variation on an exercise I had not experienced really with. But that could just be a me thing and letting the stress affect me more than usually does. I left stuff out so I could move on as I felt I had added a lot of time to the session with this band pain. I knew the rain wasn’t coming back. Garage work to finish things up. Chest supported rows with the swiss bar. Indication was 2x6-8 RPE 6-7, leave 4RIR. I was annoyed with the pressing and just did the same weights I did as last week on these and did 2x8. Hands and arms were feeling Saturday training. I ended up pausing the last rep in the stretch before going for it. I think partly to not have things be sloppy and to kind of reset. Defranco band pullaparts replaced the lateral raises. 2x12-15 with 4-5RIR and 2 second holds. I’ve done Defrancos for a lot of reps and volume before and but not with holds. I wasn’t sure how those would go but I figured that I could tolerate a mini band. That did seem to work out right for these. Last thing was the band incline tate presses. Drop set but limited to 15-20 reps to have that be the reduction in intensity. So still with multiple bands. Again, annoyed with things and did one warm up to try and speed things up as it was already late waiting for the storm to pass. Started with the same bands as last week and made sure that I didn’t screw things up with position and have bands slide off the back of the bench. I was successful in that regard. Managed to increase reps here and able to stick to more than the light band for the end of it. Put stuff away as I started to cook dinner. Stretched and iced my knees before bed. I need to get things under control.

June 10, 2023 – Week 13, Day 4

Bulgarian Split Squats with Rotation
bwx5/5
17.5’sx15/15

Sandbag Tosses
30x1
35x1
40x1
45x1
40x1
45x1
40x1
50x1
40x1
50x1

Frame Carries
Titan Fitness (16”)
Casual Pace, Drop and Turns Halfway
115x100’
Makeshift (18”)
Normal, Reverse Start
276x50’
376x25’
476x25’
BiggDogg Strongg (20”, 1.5” handles)
568x25’
Normal
628x25’
Drop and Turns Halfway
700x100’ in 24.73 seconds
Hold
630x45.80 seconds
Normal, Reverse Start
568x25’

Atlas Stone to Shoulders
205x1
235x1
265x1
290x6

Atlas Stone Roll-ups to Shoulders
235x2+1
235x2+1

Stretching
 
Comments: This has been an odd week for sure. With the air pollution warnings. My Friday afternoon to late evening wasn’t great. With work, the higher ups (not sure who, but it feels like the one manager), is making the monthly unit meeting (which has been cancelled every month since March) to be in person going forward. So that will mean having to spend all day at the office for that day and not schedule any work to be done. I’ve never felt any meeting couldn’t have been an e-mail. It’s a bit aggravating as this being bundled as a training which I’m the only person that is compliant on it. I think my added frustration with that is that the first one is Tuesday after I get back from competing. Regionals had been a one day show when I requested leave (to guarantee based off seniority, I have to request all leave I want during the 2nd week of December of the previous year). Now granted, it does sound like the second day will move quickly (not sure I want that with the planned events though) so I should hopefully have enough time to recover. But having to plan for potentially an additional hour into my schedule for the morning commute is not something I want to contemplate right now. The other thing was dealing with a card issue. A purchase I made on Friday got flagged as suspicious and my card was locked. But I wasn’t made aware of it by my bank. It wasn’t until I got hungry after dinner and tried to order a pizza. 45 minutes on hold to maybe have gotten that resolved. I say maybe because it seems to be taking time for the different things to be affected. But it does seem the suspicious purchase (4 plantar fascia inserts and turmeric based supplement) went through this morning. I was ready to have to call first thing in the morning about it if still an issue displaying. Plan was to get out to train a bit on the earlier side to get back and take care of some things as plan was to go visit family Sunday. Turns out there were soft plans for this evening as well so that added some urgency as well. There was still construction. I was initially thinking it was due to the air quality issue the previous few days but then I remembered it was supposed to finish up 6/5/23. Turns out they announced they were doing more in the same area on 6/8/23 to be from 6/9/23 to 6/12/23. Ugh. So about an hour drive out there. So much for showing up earlier. It felt warmer than it should. Mobility stuff I’ve been doing for the knees and hips and hamstrings. Been feeling important to do with my knees and hips feeling stiff at this point. Start of workout was Bulgarian split squats with rotation of back leg. Single set instead of two this week. I felt comfortable enough to add some weight to these. Didn’t feel too bad. Sandbag work next. I’m starting to have some momentum on these the past two weeks now. This session was to be the lighter week. I did voice some concerns on recovery as far as having things still be heavier the next session. I do seem to be recovering well enough from tosses though. This was to work on singles and the post-activation potentiation effect. Essentially, take advantage of me going heavier on singles. To a toss, go up in weight and toss and then drop back down. Try to get the form the same and potentially have better tosses then with the heavier weights after coming back to them. I decided to not worry about the running out here and just focus on the swing. I was feeling good and then I did 40lbs and it just felt ok. Same with 45lbs (got good height but poor distance). I was thinking, great, going to be one of those days. 40lbs felt about the same but then the second toss with the 45lbs was perfect. Ok, halfway but now alternating the 40lbs and the 50lbs. First pairing was meh but the last one was again like with the 45lbs. It might have been my best toss with 50lbs. Like 16’ might not be a pipe dream to aim for with this at Nationals. After I was done, someone else ended up doing bag toss and the missing 5lbs showed up. I’m not 100% certain but what might have been the case is that the 40lbs sandbag was 45lbs last week and this week. I can’t confirm this so I’m leaving the numbers as I’ve put. If this was the case, definitely is good news for potential here. Time for frame work. I was sweating a good bit by this point really. Like, a bit too much. Being out in the sun can really sap you. So this was a little up to me as far as how I went with things. Warm up the same as I have been doing but for the working weight I was to either do a contest run or to do two 50’ runs but start facing the other way so that I had to incorporate the turn around and go aspect. I was initially leaning towards the later as I knew that my lower body was feeling fatigue. I was to use 95-102.5% of contest. I decided to do the contest run and see if I could beat my time with 700lbs. But I would work up with doing the facing away starts to practice that. Low effort, high yield. I’ll need to remember this for next time I end up doing a drop and turn event as part or working up. Put the hand towels on the handles once I got outside with the big frame. Knees were doing fine so that was good. I was a little concerned with the last warm up because there was a woman outside the one place out there feeding her baby and I had to make sure she was aware I’d be making a loud noise and if she wanted me to wait and she said she was fine. With the top set, I think the entire time I was thinking “crap, I’m too slow”. I just couldn’t feel like I could get my legs to go faster and that I was slowing down on the second leg. I didn’t feel like the terrain was affecting me like last time. Just my legs and hips were toast. I was thinking I was like 30 seconds here so I was quite shocked to see that it was under 25 seconds and beat my previous time by just over half a second. So I hit a training goal here. Wasn’t quite done with frame. I was to do some more grip work and the frame being out was kind of the easiest thing. I mean, I guess I could do some rolling bar hangs or d-handles. But plan was to do a challenging hold of 45-60 seconds. I tend to have a good shot for one set and then weight has to be dropped for repeat efforts. Learning that from these past two grip hold sessions and that may be the way going forward to get the work in. So dropped the weight 10% from the carry and just held on. This was even tougher than I thought it was going to be. Got a little over 45 seconds (I did have a few seconds left). Hands were sore after all this with the frame. Last thing for the session was stone work. Stone setup was a bit better and it seems like this is going to be the setup now. I guess no longer having the highest platforms. Besides the shortest, the other two are like a half inch shorter now. Just minor things that annoy me (the gremlins of inconvenience). But I wasn’t going to be in danger of smashing any more fingers getting things in a good spot to do stone to shoulder. I was tempted to stone of steel but figured that would actually take a lot longer to get warmed up and ready compared to stones. I was to warm up in singles to 90-100% contest and do a set of 60-75 seconds but not stop at time but at a made rep. Goal being 5-6 reps. I think what this was to be was to do reps and then finish a rep if time is going if close. Maybe. I was debating between doing 265lbs and 290lbs. But 265lbs was under 90%. Even if I was feeling beat. I decided to go with 290lbs. I focused on the reps part of it. I got the first two reps pretty quick but I could tell the stabilizing was taking a bit out of me so there was more rest after that. Just go until I got five reps. Fourth one was rough and I took a moment to ensure I could do a fifth rep. That breather was enough and it ended up being the easiest and best rep of the session. So of course I felt I couldn’t end on that and went for a sixth. As I was about to go, I saw a centipede crawl onto the platform and it accelerated toward me as I went to pick up the stone. Going to have to ignore that. It was an ugly rep (I wouldn’t have given it to me in a contest with not holding it long enough) and no clue if the centipede lived or not. Effort ended up being like 2 minutes and 15 seconds as opposed to 1 minute and 15 seconds. Last thing was stone roll ups but not quite. Adding a little twist to them having me do 2 roll ups and then on the third rep shoulder it. Bring weight down to 15-20% of what I did. I was fine with 235lbs. I was expecting things to be a little tough here especially how much harder 265lbs had felt just doing roll ups last time. But these were really easy. Put stuff away and stretched out before heading home. Drive home was much smoother. Plan being to ice knees twice before bed since I had family things later as well as the next day.