Per aspera ad astra (strongman Koestrizer)

Training Training Logs
181

29.05.

Didn’t get to train as much as I want or plan to. So lately I just train whenever I have the time and just get done what I need to get done. No fluff and nothing crazy but I am still progressing.

AM Training:

1 Deadlift
140 kg x 2
140 kg x 1
145 kg x 2
150 kg x 2
140 kg x 3
130 kg x 5
120 kg x 5
100 kg x 7

Video:

Notes:

  • Form was god awful
  • looked and felt just off.
  • I think I need to get back to deadlifting conventional regularly. Maybe it was just a bad day. Was very disappointed but it will get better.
  • stopped at 150 kg x 2, not because I couldn’t get more reps or weight but because form was so bad and I didn’t want to hurt myself

PM training:

1 log press
70 kg x 4
75 kg x 4
77 kg x 4 - PR
70 kg x 4
70 kg x 4

2 OHP
60 kg x 5
60 kg x 6
60 kg x 6

Video: 29 06 Log & OHP - YouTube

Notes:

  • no more energy. Wanted to train lats, rear delts and biceps. Will have to do that in another workout.
  • shoulder “shifted” in lack of better description during a rep in OHP. No pain though. Hope there will be no aftermath there.
  • 77 kg was very doable but 80 kg would have maybe been a miss, so I played it conservative.
182

Honestly, the deads didn’t look too bad. You’ve got all the mechanics right. It looked like something you could do is let the bar crash a little further into your shins at the start to really get your weight on your heels falling backwards. Rather than try to pull the weight off the floor, you’ll basically see-saw it up.

183

@T3hPwnisher : Thanks for stopping by and weighing in. What I personally found wrong with the deads is the back rounding that you see in the video, the hips rising early and the lack of quad involvement. Of course I have seen worse forms but I have done better than this and I will next time.

30.05.

Good round of PRs today. Was arguing with myself if I should train today because I was very sore from Sunday’s training. Especially every muscle involved in deadlifts. Glad I decided to go.

1a slingshot bench press
105 kg x 2
110 kg x 2
120 kg x 2 - PR (+1)
122,5 kg x 2 - big PR
112,5 kg x 2
112,5 kg x 2

2 low pin press (about 2 cm off the chest)
80 kg x 6
80 kg x 6
80 kg x 6

1b every set of pressing (warm up + working sets) was supersetted with 4-6 reps of lat pulldown, equaling around 20 sets.

3 face pulls
3x15

4 bicep curls
Bar x 30

Notes:

  • no elbow pain today. Slightest bit of discomfort in my pec while pin pressing but no pain.
  • 122,5 kg would have even been a PR for one rep. The double was good. I misgrooved my second rep but I still got it. Because of the misgrooved rep it was pretty hard, otherwise I would have said this is not the limit. The way it went however it was a maximal effort.
  • low pin presses are always a pretty humbling experience. They are incredibly difficult for me.
184

Don’t sweat form stuff dude; worry more about technique. If you get the latter sorted out, the former will get squared away. That’s what I was looking at on your video, and I think you got the technique pretty much dialed in. Trying to get your weight working with you would really get it moving in a good way.

185

How exactly would I do that? I don’t relly feel that my body weight is an advantage the way I pull.

186

It’s what I was telling you earlier: let the bar come back even further and “fall backwards” with the weight rather than picking it up. You want to try to see-saw it off the floor, making the bar carry your weight.

Dave Tate talks about it a little here (one of my favorite articles on deadlifting)

Look at point 5 specifically, but the whole article is great.

187

01.06.

Today I woke up with some back discomfort. I didn’t think much of it and shrugged it off with the thought “I must have slept wrong”. Also I was still a little sore from Sunday’s deadlifts. Over the day I stretched out lats and and pecs and stuff and my back got better so I gained more confidence to train tonight.

1 squats
Bar x 10 or so
2x 50 kg
2 x 80 kg
100 kg x 1
110 kg x 1
120 kg x 1
125 kg x 4 - PR
110 kg x 4

2 leg extenions
2 sets x 12

3 leg curls
1 set x 10 or so

A whole lot of foam rolling and light stretching…

Notes:

  • after doing my pre lift mobility and warm up stuff I felt ready to lift. Up to 100 kg everything felt normal, the 100 kg perhabs a little heavier than usual. With 110 kg came the first warning from my back. 120 kg didn’t really feel godd and after 125 kg my back felt definitely not good.
  • 125 kg wasn’t that easy but definitely not a maximale effort. If I was fresh 130 kg would have been in the cards.
  • dropped down to 110 kg which felt like nothing, strength wise but my back didn’t like it.
  • after thst I wanted to play it smart and just stopped loading my spinr alltogether.
  • now I know (and you may know by now aswell) that I get into my own head easily and I panicked about being hurt or injured. Looking at it calmly now I don’t think that I have hurt myself. Tomorrow will show what is up. I have taken all steps that I can to ensure a quick recovery.
  • this workout was kind of a bummer :frowning:
188

@T3hPwnisher : I will try to concentrate on that the next time. Thanks for linking the article.

03.06.

Very quick workout in my work break. Shouldn’t have done that.

1a seated shoulder press/ very very high incline
3 x 60 kg x 6

1b seated cable row
5 x 8

2 incline db press
22 kg x 12
30 kg x 7

3 ohp
40 kg x something

4 lat pull down
2 sets

Notes:

  • chose the seated press and the angle to save my back.
  • my shoulders hated this movement. Was painfup and very strange because I do all my presses standing or laying on my back
  • thos had to be one of the worst workouts in forever… Lets call it the worst workout of 2016.
  • definitely in for a deload now. Next Wednesday I will fly away for vacarion, so this comes at the right time. I won’t be inactive but will let the heavy weights rest since I don’t think the hotel gym will be that good equipped anyway.
  • due to some harsher episodes of depression I have lost a lot of weight in a short time because I lacked appetite. Weight loss is a goal of mine and I can’t say that it is bad to lose weight per se but I am not sure if this is the right way. Lack of appetite was rarely a problem in the past, even in the really bad times of my depression (I am A LOT better nowadays) I need to watch out for this and compensate it with eating calorie dense foods.
189

05.07.

Drove to a party my best friend hosted on Saturday, was good to meet some of my best friends and we had a lot of fun. Eating got better leading up to the weekend and I am feeling much better. Vacation will be good for me. After the party on Saturday my girlfriend and I decided to train on Sunday. The gym we chose in the city my friend lives in was surprisingly very nice. It had two power racks, a trap bar, the cheapest SSB bar available world wide (cruel to use but hey, a SSB), a large functional training area and fractional plates.

1 Sumo deadlifts
3 x 130 kg x 6

2 SSB
2 x 80 kg x 5

3 kettlebell swings
6 x 32 kg x 12 with 30 seconds rest between sets,

4 leg press
1 set of 15. Got bored and stopped with it.

5 GMs from pins
40 kg x 8

6 a lot of core stuff on the TRX

7 batlle ropes
3 x 45 secons with 45 seconds rest

Notes:

  • chose sumo deadlifts over conventional to safe my back… Felt no pain whatsoever. 3 sets of 6 reps with 130 kg isn’t even bad considering I don’t pull sumo anymore. Also I could have done more reps for sure. I guess sumo isn’t falling behind because of my squat progress.
  • GMs were a little bit too much for my back so I stopped there.
  • my exercise selection that day was pretty random because my girlfriend’s workout was taking extremely long and I was basically done with nothing left to do so I did some thing things here and there.
  • It was a successful workout, mainly because my back was fine.
  • Didn’t bring my weightlifting shoes, so I did the SSB squats in normal running shoes which was very awkward.

Video: 05 06 sumo deadlifts and SSB squats in running shoes - YouTube

190

07.06.

I know I said I would deload but yeah… I feel better and I will fly on vacation tomorrow anyways :wink:

1 slingshot bench press
110 kg x 2
115 kg x 1
120 kg x 1
125 kg x 1 - PR
130 kg x 1 - big fat PR!!!

2 bench press
100 kg x 4
80 kg x 10

3 db incline bench
2 x 25 kg x 10

4a seated cable rows
4 x 10

4b face pulls
4 x 10

5 bicep curls
my training partner and I used the same curl bar, did 10 reps and immediately handed the bar to each other. We repeated this until one of us could not do 3 reps anymore. So in total I got probably around 80 curls in very little time in. Pump was insane.

Notes:

  • very big press PR. Programming worked extremely well for this movement.
  • Got very fired up for this lift. My butt came off the bench slightly but that doesn’t bug me.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that this was done at the lowest body weight I have been at for quite some time. I have gone from 115,5 kg/ 254,6 lbs to 111,3 kg/ 245,3 lbs so far.

1 Like
191

07.06.

Very quick evening workout with the sandbag. Was eager to try an exercise recommended by @strongmanvinny2 and thought I could burn some more calories.

1 sandbag shouldering
4 sets of 3 with 1 minute rest

2 sand bag carry for time.
20 seonds - 54,5 “big steps/ meters”
54, 5 “big steps/ meters” - 20 seconds

Notes:

  • nothing overly impressive or dramatic
  • I am very tired by now so I didn’t want to do something crazy
  • sand bag weighs 56 kg

Video: sand bag shouldering - YouTube

@strongmanvinny2 : Is this what you had in mind when we talked about exercises to improve the log clean?

192

So I have returned from vacation. Didn’t feel like logging there event though I had free WiFi. I had an unbelievably amazing time with my girlfriend Surprisingly I didn’t even gain that much weight. Starting tomorrow I will focus on diet again.

The hotel gym wasn’t even bad. I expected less. It didn’t have a rack, the ceiling was only slightly higher than my head and the plates were octagonal but other than that it was okay.

These were the workouts I had in the hotel gym:

09.06.

1 Hang Power Clean
3 x 60 kg x 5
3 x 80 kg x 1
2 x 70 kg x 3
1 x 70 kg x 5

2 Front Squats (+ 1 Clean each set)
3 x 60 kg x 5

3 Single leg leg press
stack x 12

4 45° back raises
3 x 25 kg x 12

10.06.

1 Incline bench press
2 x 60 kg x 5
3 x 80 kg x 5
1 x 60 kg x 12
1 x 60 kg x 20

2 Lat Pulldown
2 x 10

3 T bar row
4 x 10

4 db bench press
30 kg x 12
35 kg x 12

5 gf plankes (girlfriend laying on my back as additional weight)
1 x 30 sec.
1 x 40 sec.

6 Side plankes
12 kg x 45 sec.

12.06.

1 Front Squats (+1 power clean each set)
60 kg x 3
60 kg x 5
70 kg x 2
60 kg x 15

2 SLDL
2 x 60 kg x 15

3 45° back raises with a barbell (Pete Rubish style)
2 x 40 kg x 10
1 x 40 kg x 15

4 paloff holds
2 x 20 sec.

13.06.

1 seated db press
30 kg x 6
30 kg x 8
30 kg x 7
25 kg x 14

2 T bar rows
4 x 15

3 Incline bench press
60 kg x 18

4 close grip floor press
60 kg x 19

5 pendlay rows
60 kg x 8

6 lateral raises
5 kg plates x 25

193

16.06.

Back home, back to the real lifting.

1 power cleans
40 kg x 5
40 kg x 5
40 kg x 3
60 kg x 5
65 kg x 5
70 kg x 5

2 Deadlift
120 kg x 8
125 kg x 8
110 kg x 8
110 kg x 8 (beltless)

3 Good Mornings
3 x 40 kg x 10

Notes:

  • still not satisfied with my deadlifts. Looked a little bit better than last time I guess but still not what I want it to be. Also my strength really is not there. This should be a piece of cake. It wasn’t a very hard effort but still too hard for this weight.
  • power cleans are something I want to work on. Have to get my form right here and then start to push weight. I think this may be a very useful exercise
  • sorry for the kind of revealing outfit in the video but if anyone has suggestions for my form on deadlifts or power cleans I would be more than happy to hear them

Video:
16 06 Power Clean, Deadlift, Good Morning - YouTube

194

17.06.

Getting stronger was hard work today, gravity must have been lifting while I was away!

1 slingshot bench press
105 kg x 8
107,5 kg x 8
102,5 kg x 8
102,5 kg x 8

2 Pull Ups
4, 3 - no joke here, I am that weak/ fat

3 inverted rows with feet on physio ball
3 x max reps

4 incline bench press
50 kg x 8
60 kg x 8
60 kg x 8
60 kg x 10

5 lat pulldown
3 x 10

6a face pulls
2 x 15

6b biceps curls
2 x 10

Notes:

  • 2,5 kg increase compared to last traininig cycle.
  • felt heavier and more difficult than I expected but got the job done. I thought 110 kg x 8 would happen but the 107,5 kg felt heavy enough and I didn’t want to risk missing reps. Next cycle then :wink:
  • was sweating like hell and losing energy very fast
  • will stick with incline for my second movement this cycle and slingshot as my first movement for at least one more cycle.
  • very sore, but no pain
195

Amazing what a vacation can do sometimes! Good work.

1 Like
196

@TX_iron : Thanks man. The good thing is that I will shortly be on another, shorter vacation. Sadly without my girlfriend but with my family :slight_smile: . In case I forget in time: I wish you all the best for your competition! Don’t forget to enjoy yourself and I am sure you will have a great time!

18.06.

Did a lot of active recovery today because I am freaking sore from two days ago. Did everything in my power to have a good showing in my squat day tomorrow.
I feel like it is working but we will see tomorrow.

197

19.06.

First time back squatting after my little back tweak.

1 squats
110 kg x 8 - ties PR
115 kg x 8 - PR!
105 kg x 8
105 kg x 8

2 front squats (beltless)
60 kg x 6
65 kg x 6
65 kg x 6

3 barbell hip thrusts
3 x 50 kg x 10-12

4 leg curls
1 x 15

Notes:

  • was pretty pleased with my technique on the two heavier sets. The first back off set didn’t look that good though and the last set looked awful.
  • 5 kg increase in both the top set as well as the back off sets
  • the front squats felt super difficult after squats.
  • squats are still moving in the right direction, very pleased and I hope this will continue.

Video:
19 06 squats - YouTube

198

Did a little experiment today. Got up at 5 am to train before work. The experiment failed big time.

20.06.

1 Log Press
70 kg x 9
72 kg x 7
62 kg x 8
62 kg x 8

1b band pull aparts
some sets and reps

Notes:

  • no drive, no energy, no motivation
  • couldn’t get in the zone today
  • my shoulder hurt… I think because of too little warm up. Maybe because they were irritated. Had to stop the workout early
  • live to lift another day is the result of this today…
  • will rest two days and then start the next week of my training cycle with log pressing again. I think log - squat - bench - deadlift would be the best order. Log pressing is too heavily influenced by lower body work.
199

Thanks!! I’m pretty nervous/excited.

200

Don’t think of this as a failed experiment. I’ve written about this in a few different places, but the “you” when you’re training first thing in the morning is different than the you who trains in the afternoon with a few meals in your system and time to warm-up. When you can bridge the gap between the two, you’re really getting somewhere. You’re going to have a strength dropoff first thing in the morning, and energy/conditioning is going to suck, but if you get used to training in that sort of state, when you show up to a contest, you’ll really blow yourself away.

You definitely don’t need to make it a lifestyle, but I think it’s good that you’re hitting a morning session every once in a while.

1 Like