Training Log: Entry 1800

(6) Mat Pulls 550+chains
19 reps total

Notes: Ego couldn't take the bar weight, so upped it to 550. Managed 12 in the first pull, 4 in the second, 3 in the third. Right hip was bugging me on the very last pull. Things are moving so smooth on this, I'm coming back into top form.

Farmer's walks 300lb per hand
4x50' ish

Notes: Odd sets were more like a farmer's waddle, but even sets the feet really got moving. Focused on getting the feet forward on the start. Makes a big difference. 3x bodyweight farmer's is pretty baller, hit my goal early on this. Will see where to go from here. May make it that, as the deadlift ROM gets larger, the farmer's weight gets lower and the distance increases. Couple of different options.


Squat drop set
5x455
6x405
7x365
8x315
2x275


Notes: Pattern is pretty easy to notice here. 5 reps, drop a 25 per side, add a rep, drop a 45 per side, add a 25 and a rep, etc. Originally intention was to work all the way down to the bar, but ran out of gas pretty easy. Will have to play around with this a bit. Next time, I'm thinking

5
6
5
7
5
8

etc. May prove more viable. Still, good challenge.



1800 entries.  Crazy where the time goes.

Training Log: Entry 1799

Got some video of today's session. Schedule is opening up in the next few months, may be able to get more of these/longer workouts.

Axle clean and press (clean each rep) 200lbs
1x10

Clean once and press away 200lbs
1x5

Notes: Hit the 11th clean on my belt, called it at that. This took forever, cardio is garbage, but good to see the strength is here. Previous best was 7, done at my first ever competition. A few decent presses, but needed to really get the bar racked.


DB bench 105 per hand
2x10
1x8
1x7 w/reactive slingshot

superset w/chins
4x12

Notes: Getting better here. Soon I will move the incline up slightly.

20 band pull aparts in between sets of everything



205lb sandbag carry for distance w/turns at 50'
1x140'
1x80'
1x150'

Notes: Getting a good grip was what mattered here. Had the gas, but needed to man handle the bag. Camera got jacked up on the first run.

Training Log: Entry 1798

(15) Chain Suspended Safety Squat Bar Squat
1x5x425+chains
1x10x335+chains

Notes: Took some video to capture what things are looking like. Threw in another set because I'm not really getting the volume I want out of this. Really like having that in there. Think next time the follow up set will be all pure dead stop off chains to really drill that part of the lift, as I had more gas in me than 10 reps, but just felt like death. SSB really breaks your soul.


Axle cleans
Worked up to 2 singles of 240
Backed down to an easy set of 5x190

Notes: Hit sets of these in between warm ups for squats. First 2 attempts at 240 failed at the chest, next 2 were incredibly smooth. Caught it high rather than my last time, where I had to bend my back to land it properly. Really excited about getting good at this movement. I think I have the hand size to work well without going to continental. Also, to clarify something, I perform these elevated 7 mats high so that I won't screw up my deadlift form with my clean form. Makes things a little more difficult having less momentum to carry the weight, but helps simulate a tire clean.


Standing ab wheel
3x8

Reverse hyper 320
2x8
1x15

GHR
3x10

Training Log: Entry 1797


Chins w/45lbs
26 reps

Bench 220
5x10

superset w/

Band pull aparts
5x20

Notes: This was tough but manageable. Lat cramped during set up of last set, but still managed a dead stop rep at the end. Gotta make sure I give myself enough rest between sets.

Grenade Ball Lat Pulldowns 90
8x10

Notes: Hit these in between my warm-ups for bench and then superset with shoulder circuit. Just getting more volume in.

Shoulder circuit
3 rounds

Kroc rows 105
1x20

Notes: Didn't have much in the gas tank. Still recovering from comp.


Dips
1x20

Notes: Just a small chest finisher. Very short ROM, just a few inches, focusing entirely on getting a chest pump.

Going to once again post my bench programming for the next 16 weeks.  Going off a 365 max, rounding down in all cases to compensate for starting so high.

Week 1: 5x10x220
Week 2: 5x8x255
Week 3: 5x6x270
Week 4: 5x4x290
Week 5: 5x10x220
Week 6: 5x7x270
Week 7: 5x5x290
Week 8: 5x3x310
Week 9: 5x10x220
Week 10: 4x6x290
Week 11: 4x4x310
Week 12: 4x2x325
Week 13: 5x10x220
Week 14: 3x5x310
Week 15: 3x3x325
Week 16: 3x1x345

Training Log: Entry 1796

(7) Mat pulls 545+chains
1x18


Notes: It pains me to see the bar weight so low, but this is what I needed. Chains add a nice degree of difficulty exactly where I am weak. Additionally, I want to applaud myself for my brilliance, in that, by attaching the chains directly to the bar, this means that, as the ROM increases each week, the starting weight actually DECREASES while the end weight remains the same. This may have some interesting effects on maintaining reps through out the cycle.

Managed 3 dead starts here, with 11 in the first pull, 4 in the second, and 3 in the third. In the future, my plan is to take the chains off at the end and go for broke on the last pick up, but my right hip was a little pissed off with me, so I took a little easy.



Farmer's walks 285 per hand
4x50'

Notes: Improved my technique here. Was starting with my feet too far back, which made the pick up slow and ugly and gave me no speed at the start. Got my heels in line with my hands (rather than my middle foot) and noticed a huge difference on the last 2 sets. Was really motoring with the weight. Want to get this up to 300lbs per hand pretty soon.


Squat (drop set)
405x10
315x10
225x10
135x10
barx10


Notes: Was running long and wanted to get volume in quickly. Totally kicked my ass.

Training Log: Entry 1795

NG chins
1x20

Notes: Still going light, using this as a warm-up. Used to do chins for time, think I might bring that back.


Axle clean and press (clean once) 200lbs
1x10
1x4

Notes: Pretty sweet to hit a lifetime PR my first press workout back from a comp. Finally figuring out leg drive. Been holding the weight in my hands all this time and basically getting nothing out of my legs. Now I'm ensuring that I rest the axle on my collar bone and throw my bodyweight into the implement, and the difference is huge. Those 10 reps were smooth and easy. Got big things in the future here. I know the original goal was to clean each rep, but eyeing a contest in the horizon that has a clean once then press away event. I'll switch things up a bit as I go.


DB bench press 105
1x10
1x9
1x6
1x6 w/reactive slingshot

superset w/

Seated cable rows 90
4x15


Notes: Going to hit the flat bench until I can manage 3x10, then slightly incline the bench up. Will keep that approach as long as it works.


Chins
3x5

superset w/

Cable curls 50
3x8

superset w/

Band pushdowns
3x25


Notes: Just trying to get in some more back volume. Been neglecting my back training to get better at events, time to bring the volume.



20 pull aparts in between sets of everything

Training Log: Entry 1794

Worked up to 240 for a single of axle cleans

Notes: Still not fully recovered from comp.  Hamstrings felt like they were going to snap.  Still, this was a good clean.  Took 3 attempts, technique was a little rough.  Once I can get that figured out, I should be able to really climb.

RAB FITNESS STRONGMAN COMPETITION WRITE UP

Finally took first place and qualified for nationals at a competition.  Now, I will say that this was a small comp, with only 3 people in my weight class counting me, but amazingly this made every event life or death, as the smallest slip would have me lose my place.  I initially thought that this was going to be a pretty boring contest with so few competitors, but it was actually the most fun I’ve had and really pushed me to give my all.  Training paid off a ton, as did my tune up contest back in Jan.  Here are my thoughts on each event.

EVENT 1: Tire Squat for Reps (371lbs)

Watching the women do this event before me gave me a few ideas/lessons to learn. Walking the bar out gave a lot of people trouble, as the rack was narrow and the tires would hit on either side, making it tough to get set up.  I saw a lot of people that most likely employ a high bar/dive bomb style squat in their training, and this turned out to be a major detriment, as they would fall from the top, hit the tires on the platform, have the bar bounce off their back/forward, and totally lose a squat.  TONS of competitors zero’d this event from this approach.  Thankfully, as a former powerlifter who still cheats with a low bar/slow squat, this wasn’t going to be an issue for me.

Guy before me (who would end up being the guy I chased for the whole competition) hit 15 very fast/smooth reps on the squat, so I had my work cut out for me.  I’d hit 405 in the gym for 17, but that was with just plates.  Coming into this event, my 2 fears were hitting depth and being even on my descent, as in training when squatting to chains I have a tendency to hit the left side of the chain with the bar before the right side.  1 of these fears was legitimate, as I had no issues with depth, but constantly kept hitting the platform unevenly.  On the very first rep, I hit the left side but never made contact with the right.  On the second, the judge called me out on this and no repped me.  From here, I had to make a constant effort to dip down on the right side to make sure I made contact, which made things a little wonky.  I ended up hitting the j-hooks on one rep, and in general just fell out of my groove.

I was credited with 14 reps.  Had I made contact on the no rep, I would have tied for first.  Instead, I took a hard fought second.


EVENT 2: Press Medley (200lb log, 200lb axle, 180lb keg, 115lb circus DB)

Prior to this event (and the tire squat for that matter) I was feeling very light headed and weak.  I figured I hadn’t eaten enough, since my stomach had been a little upset before the contest and I was trying to avoid making things worse.  I sacked up, ate 2 pop tarts and downed a Gatorade, and that seemed to help make the difference, as I came into things feeling much stronger.

I had been practicing this exact event prior to the show, with the only difference being that I had no circus DB at home, so I used fat gripz on a 105lb dumbbell.  I figured that the weights on all the other implements were super light, and it was basically going to be a contest to see who could get to the circus DB first to get the most reps, so I focused on cutting down the transition between the clean and press on each implement and recruit my legs more to press faster.

All of that ended up falling apart, as my light headedness seemed to still plague me a little.  I lost my footing on each clean, forcing me to take a second to re-adjust before the press.  Getting the keg to my chest was slow as well.  However, the circus DB ended up being a pleasant surpise, as I struggled with this exact implement/weight at my last contest, while here I managed 3 clean reps with a 4th that died on the lockout.  Focusing on driving the bell up with my shoulder really paid off here.  If I was smart, I would have held on to the bell and just hit touch and go between reps to really move things faster, but I was trying to have very fast eccentrics here to save my shoulder and cut down on time (to the point that I pretty much dropped the keg off my chest and bent it pretty good.  Promoter got pissed off about that, oops.)

I thought this wasn’t a great performance, but amazingly most the other competitors struggled on the implements BEFORE the circus DB.  Many never even got that far, with the keg being the widowmaker for may.  I am SO thankful I bought a keg to train with, as familiarity with the implement was invaluable.  I ended up taking first here, with second place getting zero reps on the circus DB (he could lockout the bell, but was unable to get his legs locked out).  It also looks like all that time I spent training the clean with each implement paid off.  Very happy with how training paid off here.


EVENT 3: Carry Medley (475lb yoke, 500lb frame, 200lb keg, 200lb sandbag) 35’

I was dreading this event.  Footspeed is still my weakness, and though I have been hitting parts of this hard (farmer’s one day of the week, keg/sandbag medley the other) and training 50’ish versus 35, I was still doubting myself.  Additionally, the event originally called for farmers, but the promoter switched it to frame at the last minute (which I thought would be better for me, but still, not what I trained for) and I still don’t have a yoke to train with at home, so I knew I was going to have to wing it.

Thankfully, both of the competitors ahead of me made some mistakes (the joy of being in first, I got to watch and learn).  The first guy moved really fast, and looked like he would be a major threat, but he had lost some time figuring out how to pick up the sandbag, and ended up tripping over his feet at the very end, crashing and burning hardcore straight onto the sandbag.  A truly epic fall, but it also put me in the fight.

The second guy also looked like he was blazing fast, and instead of holding the bag horizontally, he just bear hugged it and ran it forward.  All hope looked lost until he made a rookie mistake: he fell onto the sandbag at the end when he loaded it, not knowing that time didn’t stop until he took his hands OFF the bag.  By doing this, he killed at least 6-8 seconds off of what would have been a VERY competitive time.  Seeing that gave me some hope, but it also let me know that I had to have a perfect run.

I did something different setting up under the yoke this time: I took a narrow stance. Usually, I would take a squat stance, squat the yoke up, then bring my feet in and start moving.  I realized that this was just killing my time, and knew that I needed to make the pick-up and my first steps a fluid motion.  Soon as I heard go, I stood up and started moving forward before I had a chance to know if I even had the yoke cleared.  Watching the tape, it was still a pretty sloppy run, but definitely the fastest/smoothest I’ve ever moved with a yoke.

I jumped from the yoke into the frame, and in doing so felt my left ankle twist a little as I hit the edge of the implement.  It was thankfully a minor tweak, as I was still able to successfully grab the handles and motor forward.  The training with the farmer’s paid off from what I could tell, although looking at the tape I could definitely have stood to take shorter, faster steps.  We were allowed straps on the frame, and I had them on me in case I needed them, but my grip was just fine.  That was a positive, as I knew any time spent strapping up on the frame was time lost.

It felt like I sprinted back to the keg, but looking at the tape it was more like a jog.  I’ll have to actually work on some sprints in the off season to minimize this time.  I had been training with a 182lb keg, and was curious how big of a difference the 18lbs was going to make.  Answer: a lot.  I was able to move pretty quickly with the keg at home, but this became more like a quick walk.  I tried hard to pick up high and lean back to free up my legs, but it was garbage.  I knew that if I wanted a shot, I had to make it up on the sandbag.

Here is where training with crappy equipment pays off.  Prior to my Jan contest, I took a partially filled 150lb sandbag with me to my in-laws and trained with it for 2 weeks.  I got real good at picking it up off the floor.  When I got home I put 50 more pounds in, still had a lot of space in it, and trained the carry medley.  A few weeks before the comp, I finally took out the slack and had a well packed bag, which was much easier to pick up off the floor.  However, at this comp, the bags had a TON of slack in them, and competitors that were used to well packed bags seemed to struggle with finally the sweet spot to grab a loose sandbag, with lots of time lost.  I knew that I needed to tip the bag to the side, catch it with my left hand, dig under with my right and throw the bag up high to sort of “sneak up” on it if I wanted to keep all the sand in one place.  It went flawlessly, I got the bag high up on my chest, totally clear of my hips, and managed to really book it to the loading area.  I got that bag upright and threw my hands up in the air to show that I was totally “hands off”.  It worked out well, as I ended up taking first on an event that I was sure was going to be my worst.  A great showing for a fat slow kid.


EVENT 4: Last man standing axle deadlift.

Not a lot to write up on here, except the promoter said this was going to be done with a deadlift bar, and then switched to an axle.  He seemed to take a lot of joy in these last minute changes, when really, as a competitor, it was just annoying.  I didn’t pack axle straps, since we weren’t deadlifting an axle according to the contest I signed up for, nor did I bother to train for this.

Thankfully, my normal straps worked just well.  Having long fingers and slim hands helps.  I didn’t have a lot of difficulty with this being my first time pulling with an axle, but when the bar got to 585 I noticed I was struggling more than I should have, and when it came time for 615, I managed to get just below my knees before the weight got in front of me and I dropped it.  I think fatigue and dehydration played a factor here, along with the fact that I had pulled a max dead a month ago in Sacramento (680lb tire deadlift).  I usually go 8 months between maxing, 1 month is just too short of a time.  Also, reviewing the tape, I kept my feet close on every single pull except for the very last one, which is the same thing I id when I failed with 720 in Sacramento.  I need to quit doing that, because in both cases, I lost all my leg drive and tried to stiff leg the bar.

Thankfully, 585 tied for first on this event, but I really should be winning these deadlift events.  It’s my one lift.  My gameplan here is to reduce the barweight I train with while adding some chains, since I seem to have zero issues getting the bar off the floor but struggle at lockout.  The lighter weight should give me a chance to recover from such frequent heavy pulling while still building up my max again.


EVENT 5: Keg over bar (51” bar, 4 kegs from 150-200lbs)

This was supposed to be a keg loading event, but SURPRISE, another change.  Whatever, I didn’t train for it anyway, so I wasn’t too upset.

1 thing I am incredibly proud of myself for thinking of is wearing my squat shoes instead of my chucks.  The 51” bar looked high, I’m only 5’9, and it dawned on me that these shoes would make me slightly taller.  I may consider wearing some boots in the future to achieve a similar effect, but I figured these shoes would also help me get my hips into the keg.

I got to go last again since I was currently in the lead, which gave me a chance to learn from my competition.  The first guy had this first keg’s handles face away from the bar, while the rest faced toward it.  This meant that he could run straight to the bar on the first keg, and then grab the rest of his kegs from the side rather than getting behind them, which reduced transition time.  I ensured to do the same.

The second guy threw his first keg over the bar and almost killed one of the volunteers, which got a stern warning and prompted the promoter to tell me that the next guy to do that would get DQ’d, so I also learned not to do that, haha.

Not too much else to write up here.  The kegs felt much lighter than I anticipated, I moved pretty fast and didn’t take too much time to get the keg over.  My big fear was throwing the kegs, so I slowed down a little, and watching the tape I could stand to cut the transition down between when I get to the bar and when I engage my hips, but otherwise I was happy with my performance.  I apparently took second here, and I imagine the other guy throwing a keg may have helped his time, haha.


FIRST PLACE?

So, for those of you keeping track at home, you may have noticed that I had two first place finishes, two second place finishes, and a tie for first, making me dead even with one other competitor.  So how was it I took first?  I weighed in lighter.  Whereas the other guy had cut down from 215 to make the 200lb class, I walk around at 198ish day to day, so I came in at 197 in jeans.  Finally being too small for my weight class pays off.  It means I should also probably be a 175er, but that sounds like too much not eating.


Already included a lot of my lessons learned in the above, but one other new variable for me was that we competed indoors in an air conditioned location, and I didn’t realize how much it was dehydrating me to be in a climate controlled environment.  I wasn’t sweating at all, yet I drank over a gallon of Gatorade and still had both quads cramping up fiercely right before the last event.  In the future, I’ll have to ensure that I really stay on top of my hydration in those conditions.

FUTURE TRAINING PLAN

While I have some downtime during the week of my comp and recovering from a slight touch of the stomach bug (zero concerns about making weight now) I thought I would take some time to go over some lessons learned from this training cycle and chart the future of my training.

BACKGROUND:

These past 2 months have been pretty intense.  On 10 Jan, I competed in “A Very Heavy New Year” in Sacramento, and on 15 Feb I will be competing in the RAB Fitness Strongman Competition in Kennewick WA.  Originally, I had signed up for the Kennewick comp back in Dec thinking I would have 8ish weeks to prep specifically for it, but found out about the 10 Jan comp soon afterwards, noticed that the events had a lot of overlap, and decided to use that comp as something of a tune-up for Feb.

As a result, I’ve been pushing events very hard for 8 weeks while letting my strength building fall of my priority list.  This works pretty well for me, as strength has always been my strong point (pun unintended) in my weight class while technique/events are a weakness.  Been spending a lot of time working on my clean for the press medleys, reducing time between the clean and the press, leg drive, and footspeed for carry medleys.

Some things I have noticed is that I started out really terrible at these things but picked them up quickly by dedicating just a LITTLE bit of time and energy toward them.  What I want to avoid is my natural tendency to gravitate toward what I am good at and not train what I am bad at.  Before, I could justify this by saying I wasn’t fully committed to strongman, and was going to return to powerlifting, but I am going to be honest an say that I love this sport and getting better at it will still make me a better powerlifter, while becoming a better powerlifter isn’t going to make me a much better strongman.

With no contests on the horizon (though I am keeping my eyes peeled), it’s time to find some balance again.  Goal here is to still get faster/better with events while being able to push the max strength up.


LESSONS LEARNED:

-It IS possible for me to overhead press too much.  Prior to the competition training, I was pressing overhead twice a week for assistance, with 1 day focused on strict work and 1 day focused on leg drive, along with employing the Cube Method for Strongman 1 day a week for press.  I ended up getting a shoulder impingement.  I went about a month without any sort of overhead pressing, focusing on just getting a pump with some raises and pull aparts.  Once I returned to overhead pressing, I noticed no drop in pressing strength (I imagine the horizontal pressing helped here) while also having some meat on my shoulders from all the pump work.  Going to cut down on overhead pressing volume while focusing a lot more on keeping the shoulders healthy with more raises/pull aparts/etc.

-Best time for me to focus on cleans is my squat day.  Make it a part of my warm-up and just keep hitting it in between sets of everything else.  The axle is my weakpoint, so going to focus on that a lot, but will also work in log, keg and sandbag.

-I can run Matt Kroczaleski’s bench press workout while training like a strongman, so that’s what I’ll do.  It worked well enough, and takes away the thinking for me.  Bench has been good to me, but I may consider someday running the program with incline/incline with axle.

-The safety squat bar squat is way too valuable for me to ever switch out in my training.  I noticed my deadlift strength dropping pretty quick as soon as I switched this out.  It pretty much is the best movement ever, so I’m going to make it my primary squat movement from now on, while rotating in front/barbell squats at different intervals.

-Farmer’s walks are amazing and I always should have been doing them.  Foot speed has always been my issue, and carrying stuff is dandy, but I really want to start loading this heavy and getting good at it.  Putting this on my deadlift days seems logical enough.

-When I start pushing the conditioning/intensity up, my bodyweight climbs.  Having a contest looming in the future made this a tough battle, but with this off season I’m going to eat and grow as much as my body wants.  Not going to force anything, but will let the chips fall where they may.


GAMEPLAN:




BENCH DAY

-Warm-up: Weighted chins (rest pausing as needed, starting with 45lbs, if I hit 50 reps, I’ll up the weight)

-Matt Kroczaleski’s 16 week bench workout

-Shoulder shocker
(3-5 rounds)

superset with

-Grenade ball lat pulldowns
3-5x10-15
-Kroc rows
1x20-30
-20 band pull aparts in between sets of everything

Notes: Was cutting out a lot of back work due to heavy focus on events, so trying to bring that back.  Used to do a lot of chins on these days, but noticed that my elbows seemed to be getting pretty pissed off from that.  Depending on how they feel though, may swap those and the lat pulldowns every week.


SQUAT DAY

-Warm-up: Cleans with axle, keg or log (if adjustable, working up to a heavy single, double or triple.  If keg, whatever feels good) performed in between sets of everything

-ROM progression Safety Squat Bar squat with chains
1x5-10

-GHR sit ups
3-4x6-8

-Reverse hypers
 3-4x8-12

superset with

-GHR
3-4x8-12

Notes: Ideally, I’d thrown in a back-off squat here, but I train before work on this day and I’m just worthless of I attempt that.  Need to be able to workout, take a shower and get ready for the day without sucking wind and passing out.


PRESS DAY

-Warm-up: NG chins

-Press: Rotating 3 separate days here.  One will be focused on rep work (most likely start at 200lbs, use a log or axle, and clean each rep, since I suck at cleaning so much).  Second day focused on max strength (will avoid singles and go more for triples, since I experience less terrible form here), still ideally want to clean the rep.  Third day will be more skill based, most likely running some sort of medley or just pick a stupid implement and press it a whole bunch (keg, sandbag, FG DB, etc).

-Horizontalish pressing
4-5x8-10 (dumbbells, incline log, whatever needs doing)

superset with

-Rows with whatever the implement of the day is
4-5x8-10


-Curls of some variety
4-5x10-12

-Band tricep pushdowns
1x100

Notes: I see vertical pulling lacking a bit here.  Depending on how long the training day runs, may throw in some chins between sets, just for volume.


DEADLIFT DAY

-ROM progression mat pulls
1x5-12

-Farmer’s walk or carry medley
4x50’ish

-Squats (rotating between barbell, ssb, and possibly front squats)


Notes: Squat training is going to follow my previous mentioned protocol (Heavy set for AMRAP, same weight next set for half as many reps, strip a plate AMRAP, same weight next set half as many reps).  Deadlift training may radically change in near future.  Have an idea of alternating between mat pulls and top down deadlifts.  For now though, sticking with what works.
   



     

Training Log: Entry 1793

(4) Mat Pulls

Warmed up to 495, then shut it down.

Notes: Put 630 on the bar, gave it a feel and decided to call it a day. 8 days out from the comp, I'm not going to get any stronger, but there is a good chance I can get hurt. From here, just going to do some pump training to get blood flowing and stay fresh.

Training Log: Entry 1792

Carry medley (182lb keg, 205lb sandbag) 50'ish
4 trips

Notes: Wanted to make this a longer workout, but my hamstrings were pissed off at me yesterday and made their presence known again. That said, I finally managed to get some speed on this. Figured out how to get the sandbag high on my chest and to lean back with the keg while I ran. Getting the sandbag high makes it hard to breathe, but it frees up my legs to move quick. Leaning back allows the keg to counter balance me and gets the keg to quit bouncing against my legs. Might actually have an ok placing in my comp on this event.

Training Log: Entry 1791

Tried out that "Dueling Press Ladders" idea

200lb axle/200lb log, clean one

First round: Up to 3 per side, failed on 2 for the axle on 4th set
Second round: Up to 2 per side, failed on 3rd rep for log
Third round: Up to 1 per side, failed on cleaning the log for the second set


Notes: Actually got some decent leg drive on the final set. Remembering what Alpha said about driving with my body and it's making a lot of things click. Belt kept snagging the log, next time might just use the Spud belt. In general I'd call this a success, but I think in the future I may cut the weight down to about 185 just to get in more volume.


Cable rows 90lbs

Superset w/

Dips

3x20
2x15


Notes: Just wanted to get in some volume. The press ladders actually trashed me pretty good, so this was a good back off.

Training Log: Entry 1791

(12) Safety Squat Bar Squats to chains 445+chains
1x3

Notes: Looks like last week's lesson paid off. I'm at the transition point where, instead of starting the weight dead off of chains, I am starting from the top and squatting until I make contact with the chains. Was a little off center here, may have had 1 more in me if things were a bit evened out.


Keg cleans (182lbs)
6x1

Notes: Just hit these in between my warm-ups. Really gotta focus on getting that under-hand rotated on the way up. Had a few really awesome cleans, and a few where I had to fight for a second to get oriented. Can't be wasting time like that.



GHR sit ups w/25lb plate behind head
3x8


Reverse hyper 380
2x9


SSB squats 245+chains
2x10

Notes: Did a giant set of keg cleans, reverse hyper and SSB squats. Just trying to fit in more work with limited time.

Training Log: Entry 1790

Weighted chins w/45lbs
1x28

Bench 330
3x1

Notes: Final week of the program. Overall, enjoyed the experience. Managed to follow it through while still training my press pretty heavy for strongman, so I'd call that a win. Really gave me a chance to focus on form and set up for the bench, driving in the need for staying tight. Thinking I might just up my training max by 10lbs and start the whole thing over again.


Shoulder circuit
3 sets

superset with

Grenade ball lat pulldowns 90lbs
4x20


Kroc rows 105
1x30


Keg push ups
1x20

Notes: Good chest pump on this. Still like it as a finisher. May even use it in a conditioning circuit sometime.


Sets of pull aparts in between everything.