well wednesday sucked. tried back squatting and just failed. my back hurt a shit ton. so i just did a ton of reverse sled drags instead. My back felt better today but I pretty much just benched.
Bench tops sets
255x3
285x1
300x0
225x12
I also did well over 150 inverted rows throughout the session, a few sets with weight and a few sets with ropes as compared to TRX straps.
Off tomorrow and events on Saturday!
Started today with the car deadlift
car x 4
car 90 x 1,2
car x 5 or 6
Circus DB
120x10
Incline Log Press
160 x 5
210 x 4
250 x 6
Crazy Medley
All implements loaded over a 48in bar.
185 stone carried 50ft, 195 stone carried 50ft, 250 sandbag carried 25ft, 240 keg carried 25ft
This was pretty horrible but I did expect it to be worse than it was.
Played around with the axle clean and press a bit but that was all. Was feeling pretty beat up. Time to rest going to do a little work this Monday and probably Tuesday but then going to take it easy and rest and recover. Competition next Saturday!
taking it real easy this week in prep for the contest. the way i am looking at it is that i am not going to get strong in these next few days so why not rest and recover and put on a damn good show on Saturday.
Competition in the morning, bring it!
So yesterday I competed in the open 200 class at Lightning Fitness’ Battle of the Thunder Gods III. Happy to day I came home with my first ever first place finish! Here is how it went down.
550 Yoke down and back
finished in 26.4s with a drop. My knee was so shaky and all over the place, going to have to look into that. 3rd place finish
120 Bigg Dogg Circus DB
11 reps here, good for 2nd place finish
Car deadlift with added weight
2 reps. not sure where i finished here but it was at the bottom of the pack. I think either 2nd to last or 3rd to last. Still happy with this, my deadlift has come a long way.
Incline Log Bench Press
10 reps got 1st place here
Last even changed to a hand over hand prowler pull for 50ft and then low handle push back. Was out of 1st place by a point and I needed to beat the guy in first who was in the other lane. Came in 2nd here and crushed the guy that was in 1st.
My first ever win, was such a close battle for placings. My good friend Mike came in 3rd and he has like zero access to implements. Kid is a straight up animal and I am so happy for him. Great day and I am looking forward to keep on improving.
Barely trained last night. I graduated from college over the weekend and the days leading up were filled with me spending time with friends. I did get two training sessions in thought.
Tuesday 5-14
Deadlift
135x5
225x3
315x3
365x1
405x1
315x1,1,1,1
Half Kneeling DB Press and Chest Supported Rows
60x10,10,8 3x10 on the rows
Thursday 5-16
Front Squats
Barx5
135x3
185x3
225x3
285x3,3,3
Push Press
135x3
185x3
215x3,3,3
DB Bench and DB Rows
60x8 90x6,6,8 3
85x8
95x8
Yesterday
Power Cleans
185x5
205x5
215x5
Deadlifts
265x5
305x5
345x11
Front Squats
175x10,10,10,10,10
Hussafell
240x200ft
Today
Log Clean and Press
90x5
140x5
170x5
190x6
^all of these were Vipered except the last 4 reps on the last set
Axle Strict Press and about 45 pullups spread throughout these sets
125x5
145x7,8
155x5
3a. Half Kneeling KB Press - 57x5,5
3b. Fat Grip Pull Downs - 125x8, 140x8
3c. Stone to 48in - 195x3,3
5/23/13
Power Snatches
95x3
135x3
165x3 felt good with that and was ready to get to my main lift so I stopped there
Front Squats
135x5
175x5
195x5
225x5
245x5 → 8 reps
Trapbar Deads from low handles
245x10,10,10,10,10
Yoke
490x25ft,50ft,50ft
5/24/13
Strict Press
barx5,5
95x5
115x5
125x5
145x5 → 9reps
Swiss Bar Floor Press(outside handles)
125x8
175x8
215x6,5,4,3,2,1
Those were supersetted with seated cable rows
125x10
150x 7sets of 10
Close Grip Bench Press with short black bands
135x3
95x 4 sets of 8
supersetted with Chest supported DB Rows with a pause at the top
45x 5 sets of 10 reps
EZ Bar Curls
65x 3 sets of 10
Jump Rope for 4 sets of 30s
I was surprised I could actually jump rope for 30s straight. Didnt think I was coordinated enough lol.
All in all a good day and a good week of training.
This is just going to be a post on my current training. I have decided to run 5/3/1 for 5 lifts. These lifts being front squats, deadlifts, log clean and press, power cleans, and strict press. I feel like these are the 5 lifts that will benefit me the most that I can do week in and week out and not feel too beat up.
My week is scheduled as follows…
Day 1: Power Cleans 5/3/1 sets and reps, Straight Bar Deadlifts 5/3/1 sets and reps, Front Squats 5x10, and hussafell
Day 2: Log Clean and Press 5/3/1 sets and reps, then some strict presses for volume along with other assistance and lots of pull-ups
Day 3: Power Snatches sets and reps determined by how I feel, Front Squats 5/3/1, and Trapbar Deadlifts 5x10, and Yoke/Farmers
Day 4: Strict Press 5/3/1, then a lot of horizontal pressing and pulling mainly to really kill my triceps and get them brutally strong
Day 5: Strongman event day which should prioritize the likely events for Nationals.
I chose to run 5/3/1 due to this almost being my “off season”. In no way shape or form am I looking at this as a period to train easy. I killed myself this week but due to time and low stress in my life for the next couple of months I figured I would structure my lifts and pay attention to detail. I am a big believer in frequency so this is why I am still deadlifting at least twice a week (could do car deadlifts on event days as well) along with lots of pressing. I am also including the power snatch and the power clean into this because I feel that I have benefited from adding them in to my programming over the last 4 months. I would like to see where some of my lifts are at the end of August as I stay the path.
Strongman is a sport where you need to be strong but not just in the lower rep ranges hence my shift for some more rep work with 5/3/1 than I am accustom to with my prior training style. My biggest weakness right now is my deadlift so I am really hoping to improve this. I feel it will make me a complete competitor and help me hang with the top in the country. Here is to a great summer of training and to getting better.
5/25/13
Strongman Event Day
Yoke
290x 50ft, 50ft
490x 50ft, 50ft
580x 50ft, 50ft
Circus DB
120x1,2
140x1
160x1,1
All reps were for both hands
One Motioned Log Clean and Press
90x5
140x5
160x5,5,5,5
5/27/13
Deadlifts
135x5,5
225x3,3
285x3
325x3
365x3 → 8reps
405x1 I felt good so I decided to pull what is my training max.
Front Squats
175x5x10
these were done with a much shorter rest period than last week and I am feeling it today.
Chain Yoke to 175 Keg Carry
300x50ft
500x50ft
5/28/2013
Log Clean and Press
90x5
130x3
160x3
180x3
205x3 → 6 reps
All reps were vipered except my last two reps on my last set.
Axle Strict Press supersetted with a 30s plank
135x5,5,5
Standing Double KB Press supersetted with pullups
57x5,5,5
Pullups-> 7,6,5,4,3,2,1
5/31/2013
Was not able to train yesterday so I decided to throw my strict press and front squat days together.
Power Snatch
135x3
155x3,1
175x3,1
Front Squat
200x3
225x3
260x3 → got 5 here. Could have gotten 1 or two more but on my 2nd rep I almost ate it, came up on my toes somehow.
Strict Press
120x3
135x3
150x3 → get 8 reps here. Was happy with this set!
SafetyBar Goodmornings Super setted with SwissBar Floor Presses
135x4x8 for goodmornings
175x4x8 for floor presses
Also to note, I really suck at goodmornings. My back was wrecked from that.
Originally I would have done a lot more for assistance on my pressing day and owuld have done 5x10 on trap bar for my front squat assistance but decided that these would suffice for the combined day. Going to be at a Lift Big Eat Big Seminar all weekend since it is at my home gym, Lightning Fitness in South Windsor, CT.
6/3/13
Power Cleans
135x5
175x5
200x3
225x2
Deadlifts
245x3
300x5
345x3
385x1 → 9reps here.
Front Squats
185 for 5 sets of 10 reps
Push-Up Position Planks
3 sets of 30s
the reasoning behind the easy planks is because I believe my core linear stability to be poor so for this cycle I am doing the easiest regression for my list of exercises for core linear stability. The order over the following several weeks will be…
Push-Up Position Plank → Plank → Foot Elevated Plank → Body Saw
I will progress when I feel I am ready.
Super happy with the 9 reps at 385. That puts my projected max at 500 which I find to be a little high but at least I am heading in the right direction. Log Clean and Press tomorrow.
6/4/13
Log Clean and Press
90x5
130x3
170x5
195x3 ← first 2 vippered
215x1 → 5 reps here with the 1st rep being vipered
Low back is really pumped and sort of aggravated from the combination of yesterday and today. Going to keep a close eye on it the next few days.
Pull-ups
BW x 9,6,5
less than 1min rest between sets
Pull Downs
4x8 with 140
less than 1min rest in between sets
Conditioning
20s of heavy ropes to 1min jump rope to 20s of heavy ropes to 1 min of jump rope to 20s of heavy ropes to 1min of jump rope to 20s of heavy ropes. I had 10s of rest in between each.
6/6/13
Power Snatches
135x3
175x2,1
195x1,1,1 ← doing this for one was a PR in itself.
Front Squat
135x5
185x3
225x5
245x3
275x1 ← 7 reps here
Snatch Grip Deadlifts off of Blocks
315x 6, 8,10
6/7/2013
Strict Press
barx5
95x5,5
125x5
145x3
160x1 <— 7 reps
Floor Press with Swiss Bar
185 x 5 sets of 10 reps
All sets of both pressing mevements were supersetted with feet elevated TRX Rows for 10 reps
6/10/13
Power Cleans
135x5
155x5
175x5
200x5
Deadlifts
225x3
275x5
315x5
355x5 ← 10 reps here
Front Squat
155x10
175x10
205x10
BB RDL’s
205x10,10,10
note: used a wider grip on here, not quite as wide as a snatch grip though
Prowler with 2 plates total for 3 trips of 100ft