3/29
Power Clean
225 x 3 or so
275 x fail
Did some other lighter sets before the 225
Deads
405 x 5
505 x 5
525 x 1
455 x 8
455 x 10
455 x 8
455 x 3
This was just dumb and I probably could have got a couple more reps on the last set but had enough. Chuck unded up with 35 reps total I think. It was a good pissing match though.
Med Ball sit ups
a couple sets doing 10 to 15 reps or so, I didn't count.
3/30
Foam roll, band stretches, static stretching, a little yoga, pretty much anything I could think of to get some of the tightness and deep soreness out of my back.
Blast strap push ups and pull ups
I did 4 sets of each, 10 push ups and 3 to 5 pull ups per set.
Bench
Warm Up even more
235 x 5
275 x 5
305 x 5 (this was my prescribed reps and weight and was probably just about right so I stopped at 5)
I've been benching narrower trying to get more tricep work out of it so it will help me more on pressing.
Dynamic Bench
I attempted one set with 185 on the bar and the orange efs short bands. At the top the bands were probably stretched somewhere between 30 and 40 inches. This was probably a touch too much weight since the bands were around 120 pounds at the top. I did 3 reps fast and got wobbly on the 4th and got stuck. Thank god my safety bars are set just barely below my rib height so I could just get out.
Overhead (light)
I did these seated with no back support. I don't have enough room to do anything standing really so this is as good as it gets at home.
135 x 10
155 x 8
175 x 6
Nothing heavy at all, but this was just about right as far as weight. I think I'm going to start using event days as my overhead day for 5/3/1 because I want to start doing a lot of volume with the log for the next month or so.
Dips
4 sets of 5 bodyweight
Blast Strap tricep extension
3 sets of 10
Blast Strap biceps
3 sets of 10
hammer curls
3 sets of 6 to 8 somewhat heavy
EZ bar curls
3 sets of 8 to 10 with 75 and fat grips.
These killed my forearms after doing the other bicep stuff.
This was also probably the first time in at least 6 months I've done any direct bicep work. I'm happy with how the day went after the day of pulling I had before.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Quad Cities Strongman 3/26
I ended up having a good day overall. I took 2nd in the 265's and if I would have stayed in the HW's I would have taken first there. I got beat by Jacob Bodi who from what I figured out with Google appears to be a pretty accomplished strongman, taking 4th in the Amateur Arnold a couple weeks ago.
Event Breakdown
Press Medley (225 bar, 240 8" log, 260 axle, 280 12" log)
I flew threw the first three in 17.26 seconds, and from the video if I would have dropped the weight like most of the other competitors instead of setting it down nice I probably would have been close to 15 seconds. The 12" log was freshly painted and slick. I cleaned it and was pretty close to lockout once and missed the second time. I beat Joe by 7 hundreths of a second and took 2nd.
Farmers (280 per hand)
9.16 seconds for an 80' straight run. 1st place. Fastest time overall.
I'm not sure where exactly the speed came from on these, but I hope it never goes away. Next closest time was 9.6 something.
Carry Drag medley (230 duck walk, 450 prowler drag)
15.88 second, 1st place. This was 50' both ways. I'm pretty sure I had the fastest time overall on this too.
Again, I'm not sure where my speed came from, especially on the duck walk. The carry felt good and I think watching other people do this before me helped.
Truck pull (small moving truck)
I need some work here. I finished in like 33 seconds on an 80' course. From the pictures I see that I was nearly standing up straight and my feet are way too wide. I am going to work this hard for about the next year I think.
I took 4th out of 5 on this and this one event put me out of contention for first place.
Stones (270 stone over 42" bar for reps, 60 seconds)
I got 13 reps. I was pleased with 13, but also very disappointed because I was over excited and tried moving too quick. I set my hands bad on at least 2 reps and had to start them over. I feel like I should have got 15+ reps. I got second place here. Jacob Bodi got 16 reps.
Big kudos to Joe on this event. I think the most he got in training was 6 and he ended up with 11 reps.
I know it's nothing to hang my head about, but at the same time I'm disappointed with the outcome. I also know I'm not going to win all the time, but I feel like a couple of stupid mistakes aside I had a good chance of taking first. If I would have stuck with the original plan and competed at 266+ I would have taken first there, but I also would not have tested myself against established competitors like I did at 265.
Great job to everyone else who went. Corey probably made a few guys in his weight class cry. Ian had a great day for his first meet. Joe pushed me and was barely outside of the top 3.
Event Breakdown
Press Medley (225 bar, 240 8" log, 260 axle, 280 12" log)
I flew threw the first three in 17.26 seconds, and from the video if I would have dropped the weight like most of the other competitors instead of setting it down nice I probably would have been close to 15 seconds. The 12" log was freshly painted and slick. I cleaned it and was pretty close to lockout once and missed the second time. I beat Joe by 7 hundreths of a second and took 2nd.
Farmers (280 per hand)
9.16 seconds for an 80' straight run. 1st place. Fastest time overall.
I'm not sure where exactly the speed came from on these, but I hope it never goes away. Next closest time was 9.6 something.
Carry Drag medley (230 duck walk, 450 prowler drag)
15.88 second, 1st place. This was 50' both ways. I'm pretty sure I had the fastest time overall on this too.
Again, I'm not sure where my speed came from, especially on the duck walk. The carry felt good and I think watching other people do this before me helped.
Truck pull (small moving truck)
I need some work here. I finished in like 33 seconds on an 80' course. From the pictures I see that I was nearly standing up straight and my feet are way too wide. I am going to work this hard for about the next year I think.
I took 4th out of 5 on this and this one event put me out of contention for first place.
Stones (270 stone over 42" bar for reps, 60 seconds)
I got 13 reps. I was pleased with 13, but also very disappointed because I was over excited and tried moving too quick. I set my hands bad on at least 2 reps and had to start them over. I feel like I should have got 15+ reps. I got second place here. Jacob Bodi got 16 reps.
Big kudos to Joe on this event. I think the most he got in training was 6 and he ended up with 11 reps.
I know it's nothing to hang my head about, but at the same time I'm disappointed with the outcome. I also know I'm not going to win all the time, but I feel like a couple of stupid mistakes aside I had a good chance of taking first. If I would have stuck with the original plan and competed at 266+ I would have taken first there, but I also would not have tested myself against established competitors like I did at 265.
Great job to everyone else who went. Corey probably made a few guys in his weight class cry. Ian had a great day for his first meet. Joe pushed me and was barely outside of the top 3.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Events 2/20
I deloaded last week, so nothing exciting there.
Press Medley (225 bar, 240 log, 260 axle, 280 log)
Got through the first 3 in like 26 second with having to press the bar twice because I forgot to wait for the down command. I cleaned the 280 log and for some reason wasn't using legs at all. Hopefully I'll be fine just getting the first 3 in a good time.
Farmers Walk (280 per hand)
1 run in 12.xx seconds. I'm happy with that time, especially because I felt like I could have gone faster.
Duck Walk Sled Drag Medley (230/ 450)
51 seconds. This was slow as hell and the sled felt really heavy.
Truck Pull (my truck)
Meh, hopefully this will go better at the comp. I need to figure out how to just stay low and keep my feet moving.
Stones (270 stone)
I got 6 reps in about 30 seconds, maybe less, then I started slowing down and only finished 9 reps. I think I'll be able to push myself more and hopefully get over 10 reps.
Did a little sledge swinging and called it a day.
For as little effort as I put into this day it didn't go too bad. I was tired and didn't want to strain too much since I'm competing in less than a week. I'm only going to be competing against one other person, but I'm definitely going to push myself no matter what.
Press Medley (225 bar, 240 log, 260 axle, 280 log)
Got through the first 3 in like 26 second with having to press the bar twice because I forgot to wait for the down command. I cleaned the 280 log and for some reason wasn't using legs at all. Hopefully I'll be fine just getting the first 3 in a good time.
Farmers Walk (280 per hand)
1 run in 12.xx seconds. I'm happy with that time, especially because I felt like I could have gone faster.
Duck Walk Sled Drag Medley (230/ 450)
51 seconds. This was slow as hell and the sled felt really heavy.
Truck Pull (my truck)
Meh, hopefully this will go better at the comp. I need to figure out how to just stay low and keep my feet moving.
Stones (270 stone)
I got 6 reps in about 30 seconds, maybe less, then I started slowing down and only finished 9 reps. I think I'll be able to push myself more and hopefully get over 10 reps.
Did a little sledge swinging and called it a day.
For as little effort as I put into this day it didn't go too bad. I was tired and didn't want to strain too much since I'm competing in less than a week. I'm only going to be competing against one other person, but I'm definitely going to push myself no matter what.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Deads, Pressing, and my first highland events experience
3/9
I don't want to disclose how terrible my pulling was. My upper back is tore up from something and I couldn't get it locked in so I didn't have a lot of luck getting much weight off the ground.
3/10
Pressing wasn't anything to brag about either. I got adjusted, but my back is still beat up so I planned on just pressing light and not doing a whole lot else. I ended up just doing strict press with the log.
180x5
200x3
230x2
After the log Jesse, Mac, and Chuck wanted to go throw for highland games so I tagged along. Apparently I'm pretty decent with the open stone or 16lb shot, whatever it's called. I think my best throw was a little over 45'. The HWFD was awful. I threw it maybe 20 or 25'. The LWFD was a little better than the HWFD. I think I threw this close to 40' or so. Light hammer is gonna take some work, my best throw was like 82' or something like that.
Before today I was kind of against doing any highland games, but I think I might get into it a little bit. I thought that it would be just one more thing to try to get good at when I should be concentrating on strongman. I don't think it will get in the way of anything else and it will be a nice break from heavy training and strongman work.
I don't want to disclose how terrible my pulling was. My upper back is tore up from something and I couldn't get it locked in so I didn't have a lot of luck getting much weight off the ground.
3/10
Pressing wasn't anything to brag about either. I got adjusted, but my back is still beat up so I planned on just pressing light and not doing a whole lot else. I ended up just doing strict press with the log.
180x5
200x3
230x2
After the log Jesse, Mac, and Chuck wanted to go throw for highland games so I tagged along. Apparently I'm pretty decent with the open stone or 16lb shot, whatever it's called. I think my best throw was a little over 45'. The HWFD was awful. I threw it maybe 20 or 25'. The LWFD was a little better than the HWFD. I think I threw this close to 40' or so. Light hammer is gonna take some work, my best throw was like 82' or something like that.
Before today I was kind of against doing any highland games, but I think I might get into it a little bit. I thought that it would be just one more thing to try to get good at when I should be concentrating on strongman. I don't think it will get in the way of anything else and it will be a nice break from heavy training and strongman work.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Bench 3/7
I am going to start benching on Mondays. I decided to do this for a couple reasons. First, I want to start working on my pressing more and so that is what I am going to do on the Thursdays I can make it to The Jungle. Second, I can bench at home, I can't do any standing overhead work at home so this fits with reason 1. Last, I am going to use my bench as more of an assistance movement for tricep, chest, and upper back strength. That will make it easy to have a somewhat light bench day the day after events, otherwise doing overhead on Thursday made it hard to fit a bench day in.
Bench
short warmup
375x5
305x3
345x1, went for two and missed
BW Dips
6 sets of 5
Fall Outs and Blast Strap push ups
3 sets of 5 to 10 each
This was a quick and light day, especially with the assistance work. My bench felt awful, but I'm sure that's from events the day before.
Bench
short warmup
375x5
305x3
345x1, went for two and missed
BW Dips
6 sets of 5
Fall Outs and Blast Strap push ups
3 sets of 5 to 10 each
This was a quick and light day, especially with the assistance work. My bench felt awful, but I'm sure that's from events the day before.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Events 3/6
I kind of felt shitty going in, but got over it and turned out having a good day.
Press Medley
Warmed up with some axle. Worked up to 245x2 or 3 and then got into the medley.
Medley is 225 bar, 240 8" log (we use the 12), 260 axle, and 280 12" log.
I went through the first three fine, and the clean on the 280 log kept slipping. I would like to press the last log, but am more concentrating on my time through the first three. My second run I got through the first three in just over 20 seconds.
Farmers
The weight is 280 at the competition for 80'. I planned on doing one run at that weight and letting my grip recover otherwise. I did one run with 210 per hand to warm up a little and wanted to just go 280, everyone else did a run with 260 and a Ian decided he wanted to try 300 so I got sucked into doing 300 instead of 280. I wasn't real excited about it, but ended up taking it around 110' and stopped because I was in the middle of the street at that point. The way it felt I could have gone farther easily.
Duck walk Sled drag medley for 50'
I did this in 40 seconds last week.
Duck walk was 250, it will be 230 at the comp. Sled is 450.
I made one run in 28 seconds. It was fast, but I think somewhat of a fluke because for whatever reason the sled absolutely flew so I must have been going downhill or something.
Stone load for reps, 270 stone in 60 seconds.
Last week I got 8 reps.
I ended up with 10 reps in like 59.5 seconds. I'm happy with this and hopefully 10 will be good enough to be in the top 3. I am pretty confident in my stone loading ability at this point so I'm not too concerned about this event, it's going to be more of a conditioning test for me.
This event will be after a truck pull at the competition too.
Overall a very good day as I got a PR on everything. The farmers was a huge PR for me mentally. Now if I can press the 280 log in the medley I will feel really good about my chances to do well in a couple weeks.
Press Medley
Warmed up with some axle. Worked up to 245x2 or 3 and then got into the medley.
Medley is 225 bar, 240 8" log (we use the 12), 260 axle, and 280 12" log.
I went through the first three fine, and the clean on the 280 log kept slipping. I would like to press the last log, but am more concentrating on my time through the first three. My second run I got through the first three in just over 20 seconds.
Farmers
The weight is 280 at the competition for 80'. I planned on doing one run at that weight and letting my grip recover otherwise. I did one run with 210 per hand to warm up a little and wanted to just go 280, everyone else did a run with 260 and a Ian decided he wanted to try 300 so I got sucked into doing 300 instead of 280. I wasn't real excited about it, but ended up taking it around 110' and stopped because I was in the middle of the street at that point. The way it felt I could have gone farther easily.
Duck walk Sled drag medley for 50'
I did this in 40 seconds last week.
Duck walk was 250, it will be 230 at the comp. Sled is 450.
I made one run in 28 seconds. It was fast, but I think somewhat of a fluke because for whatever reason the sled absolutely flew so I must have been going downhill or something.
Stone load for reps, 270 stone in 60 seconds.
Last week I got 8 reps.
I ended up with 10 reps in like 59.5 seconds. I'm happy with this and hopefully 10 will be good enough to be in the top 3. I am pretty confident in my stone loading ability at this point so I'm not too concerned about this event, it's going to be more of a conditioning test for me.
This event will be after a truck pull at the competition too.
Overall a very good day as I got a PR on everything. The farmers was a huge PR for me mentally. Now if I can press the 280 log in the medley I will feel really good about my chances to do well in a couple weeks.
Squat 3/4
I basically had an hour to squat so I went through this quick.
Squat
warm up
345x3
385x3
435x4 belt and elite knee sleeves
315x5 3 sets
Maybe one other assistance move, I don't remember. I did some pull aparts and some shoulder traction and a few chins in the middle of sets too.
Squat
warm up
345x3
385x3
435x4 belt and elite knee sleeves
315x5 3 sets
Maybe one other assistance move, I don't remember. I did some pull aparts and some shoulder traction and a few chins in the middle of sets too.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Deadlift 3/1
Power Cleans
3 sets of 225x3
Deadlift
warmup
405x3
455x3
515x4 (was hoping for more, but I'm happy with this since I've been pulling like shit at home lately)
405x3
405x5 4 sets
405x7
RDL
225x5 3 sets
Hyper
3x15 BW
I did some pullups and some light band pull aparts and stuff in between sets.
I'm starting to realize that my grip is not where it needs to be so I have decided that I am going to use straps as little as possible. I tried to minimize them before, but still used them too much. The only set that I strapped up for was my set at 515 on deads, and that was just because I want to get reps out of this set more than grip work. I did all my accessory work and warmup with no straps and am going to keep it that way so I can hopefully bring my grip up quick.
3 sets of 225x3
Deadlift
warmup
405x3
455x3
515x4 (was hoping for more, but I'm happy with this since I've been pulling like shit at home lately)
405x3
405x5 4 sets
405x7
RDL
225x5 3 sets
Hyper
3x15 BW
I did some pullups and some light band pull aparts and stuff in between sets.
I'm starting to realize that my grip is not where it needs to be so I have decided that I am going to use straps as little as possible. I tried to minimize them before, but still used them too much. The only set that I strapped up for was my set at 515 on deads, and that was just because I want to get reps out of this set more than grip work. I did all my accessory work and warmup with no straps and am going to keep it that way so I can hopefully bring my grip up quick.
Events 2/27
Press Medley (225 bar, 240 log, 260 axle, 280 log)
Did this twice. Got through the first three in about 35 second the first time and cleaned the 280 but didn't press it. The second run I got through the first three in under 30 seconds but was dead by the time I got to the 280 log. I doubt very many people will press the 280 log at the comp so I need to work on speed through the first 3 and then just take my time and hopefully press the 280.
Farmers (80' runs)
Did one run with 210.
Loaded 280 since it's the comp weight and did one run. Went for a second and ended up about 5 feet short and called it. This was a mental victory for me to get this done since I had trouble with it the last time I tried. I was also moving pretty slow since it was wet and I wasn't sure about my footing. Hopefully I'll be able to move faster and this event won't even be an issue.
Duck walk sled drag medley (50', 230 duck walk, 450 sled)
Did one sled drag and then did this twice.
The second one I timed at 40 seconds. I don't feel bad about that, just need to move a little quicker on the duck walk.
270 stone for reps
I ended up doing 8 reps in 60 seconds and then did two more after time was up. I'm hoping to be able to get 10 or more at the comp.
I did some med ball slams and some other stuff after and went home after a pretty solid day overall.
Did this twice. Got through the first three in about 35 second the first time and cleaned the 280 but didn't press it. The second run I got through the first three in under 30 seconds but was dead by the time I got to the 280 log. I doubt very many people will press the 280 log at the comp so I need to work on speed through the first 3 and then just take my time and hopefully press the 280.
Farmers (80' runs)
Did one run with 210.
Loaded 280 since it's the comp weight and did one run. Went for a second and ended up about 5 feet short and called it. This was a mental victory for me to get this done since I had trouble with it the last time I tried. I was also moving pretty slow since it was wet and I wasn't sure about my footing. Hopefully I'll be able to move faster and this event won't even be an issue.
Duck walk sled drag medley (50', 230 duck walk, 450 sled)
Did one sled drag and then did this twice.
The second one I timed at 40 seconds. I don't feel bad about that, just need to move a little quicker on the duck walk.
270 stone for reps
I ended up doing 8 reps in 60 seconds and then did two more after time was up. I'm hoping to be able to get 10 or more at the comp.
I did some med ball slams and some other stuff after and went home after a pretty solid day overall.
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