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

Training Training Logs
142

I see. It’s just the only one I saw video of, so I didn’t get the whole picture.

Plus, it makes sense your whole “rather have one strong leg than 2 weak legs”. I get it now. Makes a lot more sense to even things out later by getting the weaker side stronger than to hold things back artificially.

I hit the halfway point and that’s exactly what I’m running into. I don’t have a good way to start from the top though, so I think I’ll just work up to my goal reps at this height (by whatever means it takes), and keep doing them from the bottom.

I kind of wonder if this is how Paul Anderson actually trained things, because I’ve seen a number of mentions in various forums that this doesn’t really work because of exactly this issue… good progress to a point, and then the angles change and they hit a wall.

But we’ll see. I may eventually just learn how to unrack a chain yoke and keep my balance and do it from the top.

143

Actually got the good morning video earlier than I thought. Quality is pretty poor, but you can still make out what I’m doing. First 30 seconds is set-up, if you want to just skip to execution.

144

I don’t remember what your starting reps were, but I remember reading in Pavel’s “Beyond Bodybuilding” that Paul originally started the cycle with like 20+ reps and figured on losing many of those on the way down. I was never disciplined enough to try that, but it might very well be the answer. The other possible answer is that Paul Anderson was just a mutant. Also something to be said of just how much food he was eating at that time, and the effect it could’ve had.

Something I was considering doing (before the ACL tear) that you might as well is to alternate each week. I was going to do 1 week of heavy (1-8 reps) bottom up squats, then 1 week of traditional squats in a higher rep range (12-15). I’d increase the ROM on the bottom up squats and shoot for more weight or more reps on the traditional squats, until eventually I’d cap out on the bottom up squats, and then I’d just start the cycle over again on that with more weight. I stole the idea from how Matt Kroc used to train squats back when he was a powerlifter (1 week heavy in gear, the next week higher reps raw). When I get back into lifting the legs, I’ll probably give it a shot.

145

I had to fix the formatting a touch, but I actually posted Paul’s routine that he wrote up in some magazine. Not sure which magazine, but doesn’t really matter I guess.

Basically start ~4" below lockout (quarter squat territory), do 2 sets of 20ish reps. Do that for 3 days. Drop it 3" and drop off 3 reps, so now 7" below lockout, and 2x17ish. Repeat until you’re at 2 sets of 2. Wait a few days, retest maxes, and start over.

I started with 315 and 2x20.

146

LoRez: Thanks for posting that. The only thing I can think of is that the jumps in distance are pretty big. I know when I originally ran ROM progression squats, I did something similar in terms of distance (while keeping the reps the same), and I could hit like 700lbs for a single for my top set but only 455 for a single by the time I got to around powerlifting legal in the span of 7 weeks. I switched from such huge jumps to just 1 chain link a week and things got more sustainable. If nothing else, you’re giving it an honest try, and should have some good data for it.

Big update today. First training, then PT.

Seated axle press
10 x Axle
5x75
5x115
5x130
5x150
5x170
20x130 (rest pause)

Notes: Warm-ups were feeling rough, but the work sets dialed in nicely. Something I’ve been meaning to document, but due to how low the chains hang, I actually push up against the chain at the very top of the lockout on all of my presses. Adds a little bit of a challenge.

Dips (forward lean)
66-17-17
40-15-12-10-10-13

Notes: I keep saying it’s my rotator cuff that’s acting up in the right shoulder, but it’s probably the labrum. I tore it when I was 16 dislocating my shoulder in a wrestling match, got it repaired, then dislocated the same shoulder 5 more times and have most likely shredded the damn thing. Still, got through this.

Axle curls
1x175

Notes: As soon as I add weight to these they just seem to work differently, so I may just stupidly go for more and more reps.

Band pull aparts
1x100

D-ring lat pulldowns 110lbs
11x12

General notes: Woke up at 188.8 this morning. Training everyday has been rough, but I don’t seem to be suffering any ill effects from it.

NOW, onto the PT front.

Got my 1 month follow-up with my PT. He says the ROM in my left knee is just about equal to what I can do with my right, and that things are progressing very well. As such, the protocol has been altered to allow for some strengthening.

I am now performing the following

1: Bike x 15min
2: Heel slides x 10
3: Gastroc, Soleus and hamstring stretches 2x30seconds each
4: Mini squats 2x10 (coming down to a 50 degree angle)
5: Calf raises 2x10
6: Step ups 2x10
7: 4 way straight legged raises 2x10
8: Hamstring curls 2x10
9: Single leg stance 2x1 min
10: Prone hang x5 min

I immediately blew my PT’s mind when we got to minisquats and I was hitting full depth squats already. He told me to stop doing that. Also to stop flaring my feet, which is going to be REALLY hard to overcome. Still, after showing them video of HOW I got injured, I think they’re coming to terms with the kind of guy that I am.

147

Great PT news there fella. Thanks for video shares too.

Keep smashing that rehab. Still here lurking.

148

Hey, great to hear of the progress. And yeah, it’s sometimes awkward or hard to explain what you do to doctors lol. When it comes down to it, what kind of person willingly carries 4x their bodyweight on their back and sprints with it for fun? Oh what they must think…

Anywho, keep the shoulder healthy please lol. I think I too am having issues with my labrum, shit sucks.

149

Raven: Thanks man! Appreciate having you on board still.

Vinny: Good to hear from you man. I’ve actually not gotten any static from my surgeon or PTs regarding doing strongman, it’s more just something they’ve never run into before. My surgeon was pretty cool when it came to talking about recovery, in saying “If it were me, I wouldn’t do strongman again, but I’d say you could compete again in a year.” I appreciated that he knew who he was talking to. My PT/techs just saw the video and said “Oh yeah, that makes sense” in regards to how I got injured, haha.

And there’s probably no keeping this shoulder healthy at this point. I’m almost getting to the age where I’ve spent half my life with a f**ked up labrum, so I’ve gotten good at working around it. The best thing I did for it was give up boxing, since I kept dislocating my shoulder throwing overhand rights.

…maybe I should look into golf, haha.

Prowler

2x50’ (50’ high handle, 50’ low handle)
2x50’ as above

20x50’

Notes: This was a fantastic training session. Kept the prowler unloaded for the sake of safety, and just kept pushing for as long as I could. As soon as I hit 50’ going one way, I’d just turn it around and go the other. The first 200’ were going 50’ high handle/50’ low handle, but after that I just stuck with high handles the rest of the way as low handles were making my knee a little buggy.

This was back to old form, Juggernaut style training. Toward the 13th length I started grunting and yelling, and it kept going until then. Real primal, very exhausting, and easy on the knee. My right leg seems to be doing more of the pushing than my left, but that’s to be expected. Calves were really getting hammered hard.

In total today, it’s 1200’, or 4 football fields. To hit a mile, I’d need to do around 107 lengths, which is now a goal of mine. I’ll see how the knee responds to this over the next few days, but it was just awesome to finally push something and give it my all again.

General notes: Woke up at 188.8. Going on vacation, driving down to San Diego tonight and returning on Monday. Much needed break. Going to try to eat well.

150

Decided to sneak in one more quick workout with the rolling thunder

170lbs

2 pick-ups per hand (did another one with the left hand off camera)

This is real fun stuff, and the only sort of deadlifting I can probably get away with at the moment.

151

Aah ok ok. I get it better now. Nice man! I was curious about those seated zercher AMs too, glad you’ve got a video of that. Love all the creativity. Your preserverance helped me out yesterday. My back was feeling pretty screwy from Monday so i thought I’d go in and hit leg press, then i thought of you doing your punishment squats and felt like a total wuss. So tight belt font squats it was haha.

152

TX_iron: Awesome man, sounds like you got your money back. I’m glad I’ve been able to serve as a source of inspiration in that regard. That sort of mentality is going to be very helpful for you in strongman as well.

1 leggged SSB box squats DROPSET
10x225+chains
10x205+chains
10x155+chains
10x115+chains
10x bar +chains

Notes: Still playing it pretty safe with the load here and moving up slowly with high reps. I’m 9 weeks post op as of yesterday, so I’m out of the danger area but still not even close to fully healed, so I gotta watch out. Great pump in the leg.

SSB good morning 85lbs
4x12

superset in a circuit w/

Neck harness 50lbs
4x20

Blast strap fallout hold
4:00

Notes: I’m going to repeat this, wasn’t really happy with my execution. Too much squirming around, didn’t have it set-up well at the start, and wasn’t really putting pressure on the abs the whole time like I wanted.

Reverse hyper 5lbs
1x150

Notes: In reality, the limiting factor for this isn’t my back but my arms. They tend to give out from holding my body onto the pad. I might try straps next time to see if that helps. Still, getting some blood flowing.

General notes: Woke up at 187.6. Small weight loss from vacation, but I expected that. Improving hydration will most likely make an impact. Left knee is a little achy on the outside which, being completely honest, is the result of some slightly too acrobatic lovemaking. I’m playing it safe in my training, I gotta make sure to do it everywhere else too.

153

i kinda think you were late with blog post ever hear of deadlines?
yes sometimes i a smart ass
i really like your writing style shows people to think about their training vs having some body do it for them

154

Hah, yeah, I was scrambling with my vacation to get that out on time. The idea was there, just had to get it out on paper.

Always appreciate the feedback. I’m always a little torn with the juxtaposition I offer where I say “Quit overthinking it and just go train” and then turn around and say “For the love of god, do some thinking!”, but it’s really a balancing act. People either want to do no thinking, or they want to worry about stuff that doesn’t matter. It’s always a journey to figure out what to spend time on.

155

“Quit overthinking it and just go train”
read learn
“For the love of god, do some thinking!”
adjust as necessary
sound about right

156

Thanks for the video. You really are creative! I have never done any zercher stuft at all but doesn’t it put extreme stress onto your biceps and elbows? Maybe I am wrong but it seems like you would risk a bicep tear with heavy zercher stuff.

157

Thanks man, much appreciated.

You’ll have to keep in mind that NONE of my training is based around injury avoidance/prevention, and I simply don’t prioritize it. If something will get me bigger/stronger, I’ll do it, even if it comes with a risk of injury.

That being said, I didn’t find a great deal of strain on the biceps with the zercher good mornings. You’re not really holding the weight WITH your biceps, it’s simply in the crook of your arm. It more seems to hang at the shoulders. Using an axle over a barbell will spread the weight out a bit, which will cut down on pain, but in terms of stress, it doesn’t seem worrisome.

Granted, this is literally the second time I’ve ever done any sort of zercher lift. I’ve never needed to do them prior to this point, and once my ACL is healed, I doubt I’ll ever need to do them again, but for the present they’ve been a useful movement variation.

158

Axle bench
10x axle
5x75
5x115
5x165
3x210
3x240
10x270
17x210

Notes: Wasn’t an awesome bench day, but things moved pretty well. Hands were mis-aligned on the final 210 set, so got away with what I could.

Dips (upright)
35
30
30+5 (rest pause)

3 way shoulder circuit 20lbs
3x12

NG chins (various grips)
10x25
3x20
3x15

General notes: Woke up at 187.2. Still getting a handle on my post vacation nutrition. Upper body was annihilated from this workout. Huge pump. Knee pain is still there but improving. Knee feels very strong, just crossing the leg causes some pain around the calf/knee connection on the outside. Cutting the heel slides out of my rehab for now, as they seem to be the only movement which triggers pain.

159

I find this a bit confusing. Given as you stated your main goal is to performance as good as possible. I mean if we take two lifters and ignore a few things like mental approach, their build qnd so on, it really comes down to who has completed the most perfect training cycles. The one who has completed more perfect training cycles is better prepared and outperforms his opponent (still ignoring other factors). The amount of perfect training cycles is limited by how often and how bad you get injured. So isn’t injury prevention a worthy goal to directly influence your performance in the long run?

160

It’s interesting, as I’ve actually written the exact OPPOSITE of this in my blog, haha. I think you’ll find that, in many top performers, it’s not about the guy who completes the most perfect training cycle that gets ahead, but instead the competitor who is able to come back from injuries time and time again that is able to succeed. Big Z blew out both of his knees on a Conan’s wheel, among various other injuries, and has come back to win WSM 4 times, along with a bunch of Arnold victories, IFSA, etc, most likely the greatest strongman to ever compete. Ed Coan dealt with a massive groin injury and still managed to dominate the sport, Matt Kroc overcame a bunch on his way to set the highest total in the 220s, etc etc.

I feel like this log should demonstrate how even severe injuries can’t really stop a dedicate athlete in getting better in SOME way. My moving events and squats might be suffering, but my static strength on the press and deadlift are still improving, as is my grip, body comp, and ability with the arm-over-arm pull. In some ways, injuries provide off seasons and periodization.

I also find injuries tend to provide learning opportunities that simply can’t be obtained by training without injury, such as where one’s limits REALLY are, along with new training techniques learned from working around injury. I never would’ve figured out ROM progression on deadlifts had it not been for a real bad back injury, and in turn that method allowed me to pull 650lbs.

If you’d like to see the fully fleshed out version of this, the blog post was called

“GOOD FORM AND BEING INJURY FREE IS THE PATH TO MEDIOCRITY”

Lifting is dangerous, sure, but driving is far worse, haha.

161

I was stuck for a long time because I had the mindset of “I can’t do this, and I can’t do that, because such and such hurts or is injured”.

It wasn’t until I got past that and started thinking in terms of “ok, so what can I do?” that I started making progress again.

It’s been kind of a weird change though, in part because I feel like I’m betraying a lot of my earlier ideas about training, especially as I put more trust into just finding what actually works, rather than doing things that “make sense”.

I feel emotionally/mentally uncomfortable with these changes, but all of the old ideas really didn’t work either. Resting, strengthening such and such muscles, rolling things out… all that stuff can help here and there, but I kind of lost my faith in them as being a panacea. I’ve done much better finding a way to move forward, than trying to “fix” or “heal” the things that are/were wrong.