12-27 Gym Day

warmup: usual

Paused Deadlift: 155x2, 245x2, 275x2x4

10 Rounds
Incline DB Bench- 65sx5
Pendlay Row- 155x5
Rest- 90 seconds

5 Rounds
DB Flyes- 22.5sx10
Cable Row- 110x10
Rest- 60 seconds

Triceps Triset- 2x through
Biceps Triset- 2x through

Played around with paused deadlifts for the first time ever. Kinda like them. Really feel my hamstrings working to restart the pull after I pause. 275 is easy, but it feels heavy enough to still do something. Probably need to pause for longer though as I'm sure my perception of "2 count" is actually more like a 1 count.

Paused DLs sound like something maybe I could use since my hamstrings do nothing. Where are your gym days, at the strongman place too or do you still Tufts it?

I still do both. Usually Tufts Monday and Thursday and Titan Wednesday and Saturday. But this week is gonna be play it by ear. Probably Titan tomorrow, Tufts Wednesday, Titan Saturday.

In for Wed and maybe Sat if you go before my flight

What time are you getting here on Tuesday?

Not sure yet, I would imagine mid afternoon. Getting a ride with my sister so kinda depends on her schedule. I can text you Tuesday when we figure it out

Yeah LMK, if she wants to drop you off in Framingham at my office (right off the pike) so she doesn't have to drive up to Arlington then that's cool. I'll probably be leaving at some point between 4 and 5.

12-29 Events Day

Warmup: usual

Anderson Front Squats: 225x1x7 EMOM

Atlas Stones: 220x3, 220x2x6

2 Handed Swings: 100x10, 125x10x2

Lifted with KC and Saw, and Montecore stopped by for the end. My lower back is not super happy today, I think I was hyperextending it with the atlas stones to make up for a lack of t-spine extension.

12-31 Gym Day

Warmup: usual

Deadlift: 135x5, 225x5, 265x5, 295x5, 315x5, 335x10

LBBS: Singles up to 315

Chinups: +50x3x4

OHP: 95x5, 115x5, 125x5

Curls

A few hours later...

Pushups: 25, 25, 25, 25, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 15, 15, 15, 15 (260 total)

Lifted with Gary Stevenson. Basically wanted to start my 5/3/1 deadlift cycle, but just made up the rest as I went along.

What's your starting training max 395?

I would be free tomorrow, but I'm feeling really sick so we'll see how that goes. Life pretty much returns to normal after that though anyway.

Yeah went with 395. I always liked how nicely 395 lays out the training weights. I'm probably 50/50 to go tomorrow, depending how tonight shakes out.

1-3 Gym Day

warmup: usual

Paused Deadlift: 155x3, 245x3, 275x3x3

Incline DB Bench: 50sx5, 60sx5, 65sx5, 70sx5x2

Pendlay Row: 155x5, 175x5, 195x5, 205x5

Curl Triset (twice through):
A1: EZ Bar Curl - 90x6
A2: Incline DB Curls - 25sx8
A3: Cable Curl - 35x12

Down The Rack Curls: 40sx5, 35sx5, 30sx5, 25sx5, 20sx5

1-4 Went Skiing

Schedule is back to normal. Will do horizontal push/pull tonight, picking up where I left off.

I meant vertical push/pull.

1-5 Gym Day

Warmup: usual

10 Rounds:
OHP- 105x5x5, 110x5x5
Chinups- +35x4
Rest- 90 seconds

5 Rounds:
Slow Lat Pulldowns- 85x10
DB Lateral Raises- 20sx10
Rest- 60 seconds

Triceps Marathon Tri Sets- two sets of 36 reps
Incline DB Curls- 40sx5x3

100 pushups in 4 minutes.

105 for OHP was too light, and 110 wasn't much harder. 115 next time, along with +35x5 for chinups.

1-7 Events Day

Warmup: usual

Deadlift (3s Wave): 155x3, 245x3, 295x3, 315x3, 335x3, 355x8

Anderson Front Squats: 225x1x8 EMOM

18 Inch Deadlift (w/ straps): 315, 335, 355, 375, 395, 415, 435, 455, 475, 495

Tore my strap on the 495 DL so had to mix grip it and barely made it. I think with straps I could probably do somewhere between 520 and 550 but not really sure. FWIW I think this is excessively stupid strongman event.

How do you know what 18 inches is, did you measure blocks or what?

Before I left my house I measured from the floor (in shoes) to find where 18 inches was (right at my tibial tuberosity). Then I set the bar to that point in a rack. I guess technically these were rack pulls, and an 18 inch deadlift is slightly easier because of the different amounts of bar flex.

Oh nice that's a good method.

DF2,

Is 18" deadlift like twice as high as a normal deadlift? The Hudson Valley strongman contest looked intersting but flights were like $500 and it seems like Hudson Valley is in the middle of nowhere but i have no idea about stuff on the east coast. Also, i wouldnt be able to do any reps on the press medley so that would be pretty dissapointing to go there and not be able to do one entire event

Twice as high sounds about right.

Wouldn't you be heavyweight novice? 200 log, 200 axle, 100 dumbell should be no problem for you to push press or jerk. TBH those are relatively light weights even for lightweight competitors. Figuring out how to clean the axle and log may be a bit of a challenge, but if you can get even 1 training session in with the implements prior to the competition, you'd have no problem.

Keg over bar is the only one of those events that looks moderately challenging.

Ya HW novice. I read the chart wrong and thought i had to do 240/240/120 or something like that. Still dout i could get 200 but i would have a chance if i trained it for a month or two

1-9 Gym Day

warmup: usual

10 Rounds
Flat DB Bench- 70sx5
Pendlay Row- 165x5
Rest- 90 seconds

5 Rounds
DB Flyes- 25sx10
Cable Row- 120x10
Rest- 60 seconds

Triceps Triset- 2x through (high reps)
Biceps Triset- 2x through (low reps)
Triceps 21s- 2x through
Biceps 21s- 2x through

Decided I'm going to cycle through flat DB bench, slight incline, incline, and steep incline. Once I make all the reps on steep incline I should be good to increase weights and drop to flat again. That way I build an element of progression into the first superset. We'll see how long this fanciness lasts.

Really good pump today.

1-10 Events Day

Warmup: usual

Paused Deadlifts (1 inch deficit): 135x3, 225x3, 275x3x3

Anderson Front Squats: 225+chains, 230+chains, 235+chains, 240+chains, 245+chains

Front Squat Singles: 225, 245, 265

Atlas Stones: 135, 160, 185, 220, 250xf, 250x1x2 (47 inch platform), 185x6

Ab rollouts and GH situps

After failing the 250 stone I tossed 3 mats under it and did 2 relatively clean singles. I measured the platform after; empty platform is 50 inches high and each mat is 1 inch thick. I should be able to get the 250 stone for 50 inches next time if I do a bit less beforehand.

1-12 Gym Day

Warmup: usual

10 Rounds:
OHP- 115x5x7, 115x4x3
Chinups- +35x5x7, +35x4x3
Rest- 90 seconds

3 Rounds:
DB Lateral Raises- 20sx10
Slow Lat Pulldowns- 85x10
Rest- 60 seconds

Triceps- 2 slow sets of 20 reps
Curls- 2 slow sets of 20 reps

1-14 Events Day

Warmup: usual

Deadlift (531 Wave): 155x5, 245x5, 295x5, 335x3, 375x6

DB Jerks: 75x2, 85, 90, 95, 100x1x2

Front Squats: 70kg, 90kg, 110kg, 120kg

15 Inch Deadlift: 315, 365, 415x1x4

Grip Work

Pretty happy with 375x6 on the deadlift. I think my 6rm is 390, so not too far off. In the past I always made 10# jumps between cycles for deadlifts. I think this was a mistake. The result of this was that I'd go from 375x6 (RPE 9.75) to 385x5 (RPE 9.25) or something along those lines. So didn't leave any reps in the tank, but with the reducing rep out numbers it was hard to evaluate progress between cycles. For the next cycle I'll add 5# to all weights and hopefully hit not lose any reps. So 340x10+, 360x8+, 380x6.

Also messed around with DB jerks a bit since that's a component of the Hudson Valley event. DBs only go up to 100#, and those were not challenging. Will have to try the circus DB soon.

Lastly, my #1.5 CoC showed up in the mail yesterday. Bought it on a whim because I figured I could use more grip work. Closed it first try.

Damn, I can barely close the #1 (FWIW I have the T, 1, and 2). I can never remember to practice with the CoC though. Do you have any kind of plan or just "whenever I'm sitting at my desk and remember to do it"?

For DB jerk work (you're gonna have to show me the skillz) do you do each side to balance out? Or do you just try to get as good as possible with your better side (probably right?)?

One idea that popped into my head yesterday for my push press day that I'm curious about. Could be completely tarded, or it could be ok. I was thinking OHP and squat days I can do something like 8/6/4 and the PP and deadlift days I can do 4/3/2 or 3/2/1, since the first two are purely for general strength/assistance/hypertrophy, and the latter two are more pure strength/events-related. Obv the former would use lower %'s wrt 5/3/1 and the latter two would use higher. I dunno. What you think?

Ideally I'll balance it out, but my left shoulder is my worse one so didn't do any reps with it yesterday.

Interesting thought with the rep ranges. I loathe repping anything remotely heavy overhead, so when I press anything over 75% of my max, it's for singles. The thing is, strongman doesn't make the distinction of strict press vs push press vs jerk, so every event should be done with leg drive. Being able to get good leg drive on every rep for a set of 8+ is important. So is being able to lower the weight to the rack position. So I definitely see some positives to hitting high rep push press from time to time.

For the Hudson event since it's a medley and every rep will be cleaned from the floor, I don't think it is as important to practice rep outs. If I know I can hit the DB easily and know I can do the axle clean easily, I'll get plenty of total reps without any supplemental endurance work.

As far as deadlift reps go, I've changed my approach a bit.

General training: 1 day a week of 5/3/1, 1 day a week of targeted weakness training (paused DL for me currently)
Peaking: 1 day a week of 3/2/1, 1 day a week of 3x2x75%