(7) Axle Mat Pulls
5x136
5x226
1x276
1x366 (mixed grip)
1x456 (mixed grip)
14x560 (straps, touch and go, rest pause)
10x476 (straps, deadstop)
20 second DOH hold of 276
Notes: Another afternoon workout. I need to start using the WOW straps correctly; they’re starting to slip a little and I’m missing reps that way. Topset broke down to 7, 4 and 3. My lats are on fire from my bench workout; the off season is working.
GHR sit ups w/25lb plate behind head
3x8
1x6
Buffalo bar squats
5xBar
5x100
5x140
3x190
1x230
1x280
10x320
Notes: Had a plan to do something a little stupider, but still recovering from the competition apparently. The 10 was challenging but nothing awful. Got a touch of tendinitis in the IT band, but I think that will work through.
EDIT: Forgot to mention; woke up at 191.6. Skipped dinner last night due to work. Had my cheatmeal for lunch today. Another 2/3lb burger with sausage, 3 cheeses, and onion rings. Just amazing.
No that’s just the stuff I was looking for, thanks man. Sorry to be a pain but could you go through the exercises your physio got you doing? I love the NHS but non vital healthcare such as physio isn’t something that gets much in the way of resources so I suspect my friend will get left to his own devices. I got a grand total of 15min of physio with my injury and that’s only because I requested it. Thanks again!
Now, I started physical therapy a month late, and during that month all I did heel slides and leg extensions on the floor, which actually went a long way in setting me up for success during physical therapy. Otherwise, you can chart my progress pretty well. I spent about a month on sheet 1, about 2 months on sheet 2, and about 2 months on sheet 3.
If the terms are confusing, let me know, and I’ll try to remember what it all meant.
Notes: Trying to get back into this in my off season. I’m in terrible running shape, but an 8 minute mile is the baseline I want to maintain, so I’ve got that at least. I don’t think I’m gonna bring the long runs back. As much as I enjoyed them and being able to run 4 miles at a pop, that’s time I could spend being a better strongman. I’m fully recovered now, and it’s time to start training that way.
Didn’t get my weight this morning; was a bit hectic. I DID however eat a 1.5lb steak, which will probably change things.
Notes: The contest prep cycle where I wasn’t pushing PR sets may be biting me a little, but I think I just need to rediscover my groove on these. I had a 7th in me but breathing wasn’t right. I like chasing the topset with push presses.
Grenade ball lat pulldowns 90
1x12
1x13
1x14
1x15
1x16
Band pull aparts
5x20
Notes: Performed between sets of presses. I like the GB pulldowns. I can twist my arms more and really hammer the lats, even with light weight. Felt totally blown up at the end. It’s time to worry less about weight and more about building the back.
Dips
75 reps
Notes: Goal was 100, but my right shoulder was feeling a little pissed off. Just gotta ease back into it.
Axle rows 136
85 reps
Axle curls
1x100
General notes: Woke up at 195.0. Got my weight back in order. Hit some bad anaphylaxis at the end of the workout again. Don’t know if it’s the honey or the bread, OR if somehow the axle rows trigger it, since it seems to happen right after that movement. Something I gotta monitor and figure out. I’ve been contemplating switching from toast to fruit pre-workout; that might be the answer.
Hey man, congrats on the contest win. Stoked for you that your recovery has gone so well.
If you don’t mind, I wanted to pick your brain a little about push pressing, which is a movement I’m relatively new to and still trying to figure out.
the eccentric: just use your arms? Bend your legs slightly to ‘absorb’ the force of the bar? Only bend your legs on heavier sets?
at what point exactly are the arms meant to take over? I find that when the weight gets heavy enough, I stall about halfway up, which is exactly the same as my sticking point on the strict press. But I’m wondering if this means I’m not using enough leg drive, and/or I’m applying it in the wrong direction.
Rewatching your 270 lb attempt (about 0:57) it looks like you stalled very briefly when you were just short of lockout, but your leg drive carried you through that middle point where most people would stall on a strict press.
I would deeply appreciate any wisdom you wanted to share. Thanks man
Hey man, it means a lot that you sought me out for this question, but I’ll be honest; I’m a total push press scrub. I JUST started re-training the push press 3 months ago, and then before that I was still pretty new to the movement. I spent the majority of my training strict pressing. On these forums, I’d say @strongmanvinny2 is probably one of the greatest authorities on overhead stuff, and of course, @Alpha is amazing at that sort of stuff, and they’d both really be able to sort you out (Alpha already had a few videos out).
I’ll still answer your question with my own perspective, but I’m not the final word by any stretch of the imagination.
For the eccentric, if it’s multiple reps, I’d use my arms to control it on the way down and bend slightly for shock absorption. If you’re really good, you can bounce straight into another, but I have to stop and reset each time.
I have no idea when they’re “meant” to take over really. I always try my hardest to get the weight all the way up with just legdrive alone. Some days it happens, some days not. The less you have to actually press, the better.
Thanks for the answer although I just realized that I gave you the wrong information. I actually have four thick mats and four thin ones. I am also still on the fence about what I should do… continue with sumo to drive it up even further or work on my weak spot but probably suffer some pounds on my sumo since I can’t work with similar weights. I guess I will see next deadlift training and decide spontaniously.
Maybe so, but the fact remains that my numbers pale in comparison to yours. I have quite a bit of work to do to catch up.
Now you mention it, I read “Strict Overhead Press - Tips and Cues” over on @Alpha 's site back when he first published it and found it really helpful at the time. Now that I’ve searched for that I’ve found stuff he wrote on using leg drive, so I’ll have a closer look at those articles and find some stuff I can implement.
Also, hat tip to @strongmanvinny2, whose log I follow and definitely find helpful (even though I’ve probably never commented on it).
Yeah that’s pretty much where I’m at. Similar to the deadlift, I don’t do so well with ‘touch and go’, I need to find my position again before I go for another rep. I haven’t found that I need to bend my legs much on the eccentric, but then again I haven’t progressed much past weights I can strict press. That might change as I go heavier.
Yeah that makes sense. I’m probably still using too much arm drive. So… I need to practise a lot. If I’m honest, I knew that already haha.
Notes: First decent workout post comp. Was still feeling a little fatigued, so didn’t go for a weight PR, but the rep PR was tough enough. I’m still pretty limber, even in the cold. Been dealing with some IT band inflammation on the left knee, but nothing major.
Reverse hyper 360
4x9
Standing ab wheel
4x8
Neck harness 45
3x20
Notes: All performed between sets of squats. Trying to bring back some more assistance work on this day. Neck harness is easy, but might also swing some GHRs.
Viking squats 135
1x12
Notes: Stole that name from Clint Darden, but it’s front squats with the front squat harness. Was just figuring it out today. I need to make sure it sits really high up on me to keep the bar from rolling out, and I gotta maintain an upright posture, which is a good habit to keep. Once I got it figured out, it was really pretty awesome. Definitely excited to see where I can go with this. Used the texas power bar for the first time in a LONG time, since the axle didn’t make much sense with the harness. It’s amazing how small that bar feels after a year with the axle.
General notes: Woke up at 194.8 this morning. Been dealing with a cold for a little over a week now. Cold weather is ravaging the sinuses; lots of blood to deal with.
Yeah I would say so. One of the main benefits for me personally is that I am much more efficient at the movement, compared to conventional pulling. This leads not only to more weight moved but also a better recovery. Conventional deadlifts tend to beat me up a lot more, especially my back which leads to a worse recovery and less consistent progress. By pulling sumo I gain the advantage of making much more consistent progress and keeping the ‘damage’ considerably smaller.
In terms of carryover: The sumo deadlift and my frequent trap bar walks seem to go very well together and made a lot stronger and more stable in pretty much everything else I do. All of my lifts increased significantly, so I can’t complain. That said, I don’t train that specific. So I don’t do a lot of direct event training.
On the downside I would say that my posterior chain is probably my weak point, or will turn up as my weak point in the future. For this reason it might be worth it to pull conventional.
Also I don’t compete at the moment and I don’t have enough experience to really say if sumo carries over well to strongman.
I am still completely between chairs with my decision of how to pull in the future. There are good arguments for both. Even though I feel like the main argument to continue with sumo is because I don’t want to let my progress suffer there by getting less efficient and being forced to use lower weights…
I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts on sumo dude. As someone that never pulls that way, it’s a total mystery to me, haha. Always good to get some more intel. Keep me posted on how your thought process works on it.
Notes: PM workout; got woken up a bunch in the middle of the night and just figured it wasn’t gonna happen in the morning. Made this most of it and hit what I think is a solid PR on bench. Grabbed some video just because the camera was there. I’m pleased with this, but this is the danger zone for me, because I’ve gotten just about this strong many times before and then went chasing some rabbit down a hole and lost sight of my goals. Just gotta keep doing what works.
T-bar rows 200lbs
5x10
DB lateral/rear laterals 20lbs
5x11/11
Notes: Both performed between sets of benching. Used 100lb plates on the t-bar rows so I loaded less. The ROM is slightly less, but I got a crazy squeeze in the midback.
GIANT SETS
Log press (clean once) 140
4x7
1x5
NG weighted chins 55
1x5
1x6
1x7
1x6
1x5
DB hammer curls 35
5x11
Notes: Played around with a bunch of stuff here. Log is getting more proficient, and I brought back the weighted chins. I’m gonna rotate those and unweighted, and do my absolutely best to keep the tension off my elbows. I’ll see how it plays out, but first sign of elbow pain I’ll cut them out.
General notes: Woke up at 193.8. Still feeling a little sick, but it’s just annoying. Sore thought, lots of mucus.
Don’t sell yourself short man. You’re an inspiration and a resource with not only the hurdles you’ve managed to jump but the impressive numbers you are able to put up.
Your most recent workout exemplifies this with a 9 x 301 axle bench. Very nice set.
Thanks dude. I got a good idea of what I bring to the table, I just know that technique isn’t one of those things, haha. Appreciate the kind words on the bench set. Took me a long time to really get a handle on things there.
Keg carries for distance (182lb keg, 60’ lengths)
1x240’
2x180’
Notes: -10 out; love this sort of training. Didn’t want to move too fast with all the snow and ice, so I went for max distance stuff. It’s not the kind of training I need, but it’s the kind of training I like. Footspeed isn’t as important as just general toughness. In my off season, I’ll probably rotate these in on occasion. After I’m done, I always feel like I got hit by a truck.
I also just had to do this for all the people complaining about it being too cold to train, haha.
General notes: Woke up at 194.0. Cheat meal of 5 slices of stuffed crust pizza.
(6) Axle Mat Pulls
5x136
5x226
1x276
1x366 (mixed grip)
1x456 (mixed grip)
9x561 (straps, rest pause, touch and go)
10x471 (straps, dead stop)
25 second DOH hold 276
Notes: First AM mat pull in a while and it went surprisingly well. Still having issues setting up those dead stop pulls; belt bite is getting gnarly.
GHR sit-ups w/25lb plate
4x8
Buffalo bar squats
5xBar
5x100
5x140
3x190
3x230
1x280
1x320
REST PAUSE (15 deep breaths between sets)
8x370
4x370
2x370
1x370
8x280
4x280
2x280
8x280
Notes: Wasn’t focused on the warm-ups and hit an extra triple at 280 where I normally hit a single. Otherwise, a solid squat workout. I wanna get back to what works here, and get that 370 to about the 14 rep range and then get back to 410.
General notes: Woke up at 193.8 this morning. Feeling fully recovered from the show. Keeping my eyes open for another one, but excited at how well put together this off season is.
Notes: .1 mph faster than last week. Sucks after a heavy squat session, but my legs are already sore and I need to start doing some feeder stuff again. I did a quick session this morning to try to help. Also, got an awesome warm-up pushing my van out of a snowdrift after some jerk tailgated me straight into it. All that time with the prowler paid off; it’s amazing how similar the movement was.
My running shape still sucks, but I’m just plain not willing to do what it takes to get it back to where it was. I’ll keep chipping away, but the main goal is still strongman.
Woke up at 195.8. Another 1.5lb steak tonight and just kinda been eating big in general. Realized the other day that my diet doesn’t really have much of an identity these days; just kinda floating. Happy that I have the fundamentals down enough that I don’t get to fat when that happens.
Hey thanks dude! I’ve seen this showing up a few different places with nothing but great reviews. I’m gonna have to set aside time to work through this and the Eddie Hall documentary on netflix.
Notes: Very solid workout. 5x206 ties a previous PR, but it was an afternoon workout vs a morning one, so that’s showing a solid progression. The push presses are still pretty ugly. Training them with sore legs from squats tends to mean my leg drive is terrible. I like how this set-up flows though, and I think it’s going to keep my strict press strong while improving my push press, which has been an equation I could never crack before.
Grenade ball lat pulldowns 90
1x13
1x14
1x15
1x16
1x17
Band pull aparts
5x20
Notes: Both performed between sets of presses. Really focusing on pulling down and out on the lat pulldowns. Getting a solid pump in the lats.
Axle rows 136
95 reps
Dips
100 reps
Axle curls
1x100
Notes: Switched up the order on assistance to save the right shoulder. It was mad after the presses, but the rows gave it enough of a break for the dips to be no issue. Still playing around with the idea of throwing weight on the dips, but right now this is working.
General notes: Woke up at 194.8. Was expecting a much higher weight in all honesty. Legs are really sore from the squat workout on Saturday. Been hitting feeder stuff, but I’ll see how tomorrow feels.
I’ve scanned a good chunk of your log, seeing what/when you did for rehab. I’m 20 weeks (4.5 months) post-surgery (gracilis/sem-T graft). You were a good chunk ahead of where I am at the same time frame, but I’ve admittedly taken the over-cautious/patient approach.
Anyways, what do you think worked? What would you change?
Also I see a few mentions of patellar tendon pain, which happens to be the biggest thing holding me back. My PT protocol stresses not doing anything that hurts, and I really can’t do much that doesn’t hurt my patellar tendon. I can leg press but I feel like I’m moving the weight via hip extension more than knee extension, if that makes any sense.
Got a PT meeting tomorrow where I’ll obviously ask them, but would like to know your thoughts
