Rebirth of the Juggernaut: Brute Force and Ignorance (Part 1)

Training Training Logs
562

Axle strict press
5xAxle
5x66
5x116
3x146
3x166
8x186
10x146

superset w/

DB rows 105
9x6

Notes: Really need to troubleshoot the left shoulder; think I can move some more weight if I was painfree. Realistically, I know the solution; switch to SSB squats and start push pressing again. See if I do it.

Log strict press (clean once) 110
3x10
1x5
1x6

Superset w/

NG chins
5x20

Notes: Log just sucks so hard. Gonna take things slow.

Axle curls
1x140

Band pushdowns
1x50

Kroc rows 105
1x25

General notes: Woke i[ at 196.0. Going on a vacation this week, so once again diet will be somewhat loose.

Here is video from yesterdayā€™s medley

563

The Juggernaut is the fucking best man. You do his name some justice! Although you are lacking about 900lbs of muscle mass, youā€™ve got it down pat.

Also, looks like your pressing strength is about where it needs to be minus some technical work on the log that will come in time. The log is one of those implements where youā€™ve really gotta trust the process and not get too bothered by how weak it can make you feel. Will you keep doing drop sets on the push presses btw?

564

Thanks Vinny! Itā€™s really meant a lot to have you in my corner here. I keep popping into your log trying to come up with something to say, but youā€™ve got things so squared away these days I just sit in awe, haha.

I appreciate the insight on the log as well. It definitely sucks the soul out of you. Your gameplan sounds like my way forward. As for dropsets with push presses, itā€™s definitely in the toolbox. I gotta gain confidence in my kneeā€™s ability to deal with the push press first. I know the push press can be pretty gnarly on the meniscus, but once Iā€™m square away, Iā€™m excited about getting some more work done on the movement.

565

EARLY PM WORKOUT

SSB Squats
5xBar+chains
5x115+chains
5x155+chains
5x205+chains
3x255+chains
15x300+chains

Notes: Was feeling confident and wanted to see what I could do with some heavier weight. 15 was solid, but I could tell I was starting to fatigue so I hung it up. Realistically, I think I coulda managed another 8-10 if I was willing to be stupid. All I need is more confidence in the graft; strength is waiting for me.

Reverse hyper 110
4x10

superset w/

Standing ab wheel
4x8

Car deadlift simulator 5 plates
1x18

Notes: Was going for 20, but again, I could tell when I was starting to fatigue. Still, this felt awesome.

LATER PM WORKOUT

Treadmill
1.5 miles in 10:33 at 8.5mph
Incline 3

Notes: Was going to set the incline to 1.5, but then I remembered that Iā€™m just really f**king stupid so I kept it at 3 and pushed for speed still. Figure Iā€™ll do one longer run and one 1.5 run with a focus on speed each week.

Woke up at 196.0.

2 Likes
566

Hey T3hPwnisher, I missed up my right wrist as of late and I canā€™t really do anything with it. Went to the doc and Iā€™ve an x-ray scheduled for a few days from now. Any suggestions on training, in particular upper body stuff. I donā€™t think thereā€™s any pressing movements I can do.

567

Sucks about the injury dude. Can you do push-ups on your first? What about dips? Those would be my initial 2 thoughts on pressing with a janky wrist. Also a good time to work on your dumbbell press with the good arm, and you could always just do unilateral work until you heal. For upper body pulling, I think straps will go a long way, but if that sucks too much, you can always take one of those ankle cuffs for the cable machine and put it around your elbow to do some pulldowns and rows on a cable machine.

Wraps and tape might go a long way too dude. Let me know if you need some more troubleshooting. Heal up dude!

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568

Axle bench press
5xAxle
5x75
5x115
5x205
5x235
3x265
10x295
13x235

Notes: Been pushing training hard these past few days to compensate for my upcoming vacation. Was feeling pretty beat coming into this. Pleased with the top set. Misgripped the axle for FSL, so it was a bit of a fight for every rep.

NG chins
3x25
1x20
1x15

DB lateral raises 20lbs
5x12

Notes: Performed in between sets of bench.

Axle floor press 175
5x10

superset w/

DB hammer curls 50lbs
5x12

Notes: Think Iā€™m going to try seated curls next as a variation. Not using the bench during floor press, itā€™ll give me something to use it for, and might make things a little tougher.

T-bar rows DROPSET
5x5plates
7x4plates
9x3plates
11x2plates
13x1plate

Notes: Felt like my left serratus flew off my body on the set of 4 plates. I had been noticing this bugging me on these for a while now. Might have to give these a slight rest and let that heal up. Iā€™m not hurt, but I know thatā€™s probably not good for me.

General notes: Woke up at 197.0. Iā€™m feeling back to my old self. Training has really resumed normalcy, and Iā€™m pushing myself just like I used to. Recovery isnā€™t getting hammered too hard either.

569

I think that hits the nail on the head.

Regarding my recent experience I now know that I did get slightly (!) hurt but not injured (I refer to the distinction Mark Bell likes to use). So I made the right call when I was on razorā€™s edge. I am 100% with you that it is about learning about your body and its signals through trial and error, error in this case can of course mean injury.

Interesting thought about injuries as a form of prioritization. Never thought about it in this manner and I donā€™t think that I agree. Maybe because I never was that heavily injured. I love the sport of strongman and follow a lot of the top guyā€™s training as much as I can. My favorite strongman is Laurence Shahlei who is a prime example of being frequently injured but he is still pushing on. It seems though that any injury he gets it gets more and more difficult for him to come back. He is still up there with the best of the best but it makes you wonder what he could achieve or could already have achieved if he didnā€™t get that much injuries.

That is why I like the exchange with you (besides valuable training information).

Another question: Why do you intentionally wound your back on SSB squats? I canā€™t think of the benefit by myself.

As always: Great progress, it is a lot of fun and very interesting to follow your rebuild, especially now that you get to push hard again!

570

Been great having you in my corner dude.

As for the upper back rounding; instead of pushing up on the handles, which puts the weight back and makes the movement easier for me, I pull the handles as far forward as possible to really jack up the lever arm and make things suck. I then round my upperback to make the movement more similar to a deadlift/stone load. It doesnā€™t have much carryover to the squat proper, but really helps my strongman stuff.

571

Tried to lift a little and itā€™s pretty bad. I canā€™t even get in a push up position without feeling pain in my wrist. Itā€™s tolerable if I use wrist wraps. Alsoā€¦

What do you mean by this?

Wonā€™t this cause some form of imbalance if I only work one side?

As for pulling movements such as deadlifts and pull ups, I can do them with varying degrees of success. For deadlifts, I canā€™t mixed grip and using straps causes me quite a fair bit of pain. Iā€™ve been using hookgrip and Iā€™ve even hit a hookgrip PR so at least Iā€™ve that going for me.

I also canā€™t do any back squats. Would hands crossed front squats and handless front/back squats be appropriate? I would use a safety squat bar but I donā€™t have access to one.

So far, I just plan to do whatever I can with a more conservative weight, going for more reps/sets instead. Additional volume work canā€™t be too bad, right?

Still clueless about what to do for upper body stuff though. Thanks for reading through my lengthy message man.

572

I saw in your log that you can get away with bilateral stuff, so definitely keep that up, but I figure Iā€™d still address this post.

I got a chuckle out of this question considering you posted in in my log where I have been doing EXACTLY this since the start of the log. Go back and re-read some of the lower body entries to see what I mean.

Yeah, itā€™s not ideal to only train one side, but wouldnā€™t you rather have 1 strong side versus 2 weak sides? You can still get some carryover to the injured side while training the uninjured side, and you can always flex the healing side as hard as you can to try to get some sort of stimulus going.

Front squats only would be great. There are a lot of strongman who donā€™t do any squats with a barbell on their back, relying only on front squats. You could also do belt squats. Pulling a sled/pushing a prowler would go far too.

Let me know if youā€™re still trying to sort stuff out as you heal.

Just got back from vacation. Was at Disneyland, pulling 10-11 hour days of walking and poor eating. I actually stuck primarily with meat and veggies, just low calorie counts. Went through a lot of quest bars too. Knee isnā€™t too achy all things considered. Plan to get in some medley work tomorrow and get back to lifting on Saturday.

1 Like
573

Death medley

Backwards sled drag empty prowler 25ā€™
Run back to start
Run 100lb keg onto prowler
Backwards sled drag prowler 25ā€™
Run back to start (50ā€™)
Run 110lb stack of bumper plates onto prowler
High handle prowler push 25ā€™
Unload bumpers
High handle prowler push 25ā€™
Analyze poor life decisions that led to this moment.

3 rounds.

Notes: Got some video that Iā€™ll upload later. After the very first one of these, I knew I had found something special, and that this was totally going to suck. On the second round, I was pushing the prowler like an asshole with my arms straight out and locked and I slipped and felt something in my right shoulder snap crackle pop, but it doesnā€™t seem to be anything terrible. Probably just need to sleep it off. 3rd round was agony. Been a long time since I ran a medley like this; great to be back. Felt like I was going to throw up everytime I finished loading the bumpers onto the prowler. Just awesomely intense.

Watching the footage, my running is getting jacked up partially because of my leg, but mainly because Iā€™m listening to my MP3 player and donā€™t want it to fall off my arm. Thatā€™s pretty bush league. From now on, no more earbuds. I canā€™t be reinforcing poor mechanics just to get some tunes.

Woke up at 194.2 this morning. Weight is most likely going to sort itself over the next few days as I re-adjust to my diet.

574

Maybe it might be wise for you to invest in a pair of them wireless bluetooth sporty type earpieces.

EDIT (ADD ON)
Just saw the video you uploaded and good job, it definitely looks hella brutal. On a side note, have you ever had a training partner? Like if I ever saw someone doing a medley or whatever out in public, Iā€™d definitely reach out to them and maybe even ask to train together.

575

Thanks for the suggestion dude. I got a little portable speaker that I think Iā€™m just gonna plug in, or just blast music on my phone if I really need some tunes. Itā€™s honestly just a luxury that I donā€™t really need.

As for the training partner thing; I have trained with 3 people total since 2008. One was a work buddy that did like 2-3 garage gym sessions with me, the other was my wife training for a full marathon where I trained her for about a month, and the last was another work buddy for 1 workout who wanted to try out my GHR.

I know everyone says you always need a training partner to really excel and etc etc, but honestly I donā€™t get the point. Iā€™m very much internally motivated and honestly a little misanthropic, and dealing with another person while Iā€™m trying to train just kinda gets annoying for me. I know they can be helpful with setting up events and stuff, but no one wants to do those, haha.

Iā€™ve been approached by a few people asking about training with me, and I guess Iā€™m kinda a jerk about it since it happens enough and never pans out. I let them know that I train at 0500 on weekdays and they are more than welcome to show up at my garage to train with me. It never happens.

All that being said, if someone had a genuine interest in getting bigger and stronger and was willing to match or exceed my intensity of effort and could stay consistent on a schedule, that might be fun.

Here is the aforementioned video from yesterday

This morning, I worked up to a single of 425 for axle mat pulls and then suffered from my bi-annual back/glute tweak. This was a bigger one; really felt my back shift on it and had to drop the axle. Still, last suffered this injury in Oct, so the frequency continues to reduce, which I suppose is good. Still, had to shut it down and might be done with training for the week to heal. Going to keep up the heat and get the Mrs to massage it.

Moving forward, I might be done with the axle for deads. Iā€™ve been noticing that it puts more stress on my back than the deadlift barā€¦ I was operating under the idea that I could take stress off my knee and transfer it to my back, but clearly thatā€™s not a great approach. Iā€™m thinking of restarting the mat pull cycle (since itā€™s going to be my deload week next week) with the deadlift bar and working from there. Maybe even bring in the suit to keep things tight.

Woke up at 194.4.

1 Like
576

Couldnā€™t agree more, half the reason why I hang out at my strongman club is cause I pretty much need the equipment there and I view helping out as a trade of sorts.

Thatā€™s definitely a good way to weed out people who arenā€™t serious, thatā€™s for sure. This reminds me of when I first started working out and doing Crossfit, I had to wake up at 5am daily just to get on the first train and travel an hour just to get there. Everyone thought I was nuts, eventually I realized that the people there just didnā€™t have the sameā€¦ Drive to succeed and I eventually stopped going there.

Man, canā€™t wait to have my very own garage gym some day.

577

Garage gyms are awesome manā€¦and an addiction. I always think Iā€™m done buying, and then I find myself getting something else, haha.

So, regarding my whole ā€œIā€™m probably done training for the weekā€ thing, I totally forgot that Iā€™m really f**king stupid, and I ended up doing a squat dropset.

Buffalo bar squat DROPSET
10x320
8x280
6x230
4x190
10x140

Notes: Back was really pissed, but as long as I could unrack the weight, I was fine. Wore my belt for the first time to get a little support. Wasnā€™t able to hit the rock bottom depth I had been managing, but still solid enough to get the legs moving. Just had to brace for all that I was worth. Took some video and will upload it later.

578

Here is the video.

1 Like
579

Treadmill
Running 1.32 miles at 9mph
Incline 3

Notes: Bombed out before I could hit the 1.5 miles. Combination of back spasming on me and eating lunch right beforehand. Still, this meant I hit a 6:40 mile, which god only knows the last time I saw that.

Woke up at 194.2. Back is mending, but still gonna be a day or 2 until Iā€™m normal.

580

Sorry to hear about your back man, hope its back to normal quickly

581

Thanks man. Nothing to sweat about; this is an old injury. Iā€™m pretty good at dealing with it. Over my years, Iā€™ve developed that skill, haha.