Never Go Full Strongman (or Bikini)

7-8-16
Deadlift:
95x3
185x3
265x3
300x3
335x5

Pause Front Squat
135x8
165x8
185x6

Walking Lunges (bar on back)
4x10 with like 80-90lbs for 2 sets, bodyweight for 2 sets

Ran out of time so I’m going to do some posterior work and core later today. Back is hurting quite a bit. I think I may need to get it looked at actually, I can’t even bend over to pick something up off of the floor without pain. It’s lower back, all on the left side. My current plan is to blast it with some bodyweight core/hinge work. I may need to scrap the PRs for DL and use the 5’s progression for a couple of cycles.

7-10-16

ME

Log Jerks:
Took some time to work on my form with this. The log by itself (110lb) was a little too light to be able to push myself underneath it much, so I took it to about 150lbs and was able to drive myself under it better. I initially went in with the idea to doing the advanced 531 for this so I could get some technique work for this, but I don’t feel that at the moment a 531 variation is the best way to go about this. I think next session I’m going to work up to a comfortable weight and do EMOMs for singles or doubles.

Log carry:
I carried it as one would an actual log, in the rack position with hands supporting underneath. i had to do these inside but luckily there’s a decent sized room and since no one was really in it, I lair a triangle out on the floor with my shoes and walked around it probably a dozen times total. Initially I was planning on loading this, but it proved rather humbling by itself.

HER
Squat 5s pro
hip thrusts: 5x10
reverse crunches: 5x10
legs isolation.

Week 2, cycle 1

A1) Paused Front Squat (5s pro)
Bar x 5
95 x 5
135 x 5
165 x 5
185 x 5

A2) 3 broad jump reps

B1) Romanian Deadlift (SST)
185 x 10
225 x 10
265 x 10

B2) 10 Ab Wheel reps

Lunges & Glute ham raises/hip thrusts are to be done this afternoon. I just don’t have the time over lunch with my current work capacity.

Notes: Decided to do the intelligent thing and moved things around in order to let my lower back heal. It still hurts but I can move about again, so I didn’t think another round of heavy deads would be a wise choice.

I’ll explain my set-up. Paused Front squats are at the forefront because they don’t hurt my back, they carry over to the events well, and I can progress with them. I decided on 5s pro as I don’t want the PRs to influence the duration of the pause.

I deadlifted in the mirror and found the point at which my lumbar spine is put in a potentially compromising position. Normally I can keep everything pretty tight but I’m not looking to aggravate it further. So. I’m using RDLs to learn to really focus on keeping the posterior chain loaded while still training that pattern. SST should work great for this as they’ll allow me to keep my lower back safe for a while due to the overall sheer force reduction, while blasting the posterior chain with continuous tension and higher rep work.

I can’t see how building up my front squat, posterior chain, and core for 6 weeks won’t move me closer toward my goal of pulling 500.

Going to run this for the remainder of the 1st and 2nd cycle, then move back to deadlifts from the floor and front squats as the supplemental work.

7-15-16

10 minutes EMOM
110lb clean (1) and split jerk (2, right/left)

Log carry (zercher style)
110 x 2
130 x 2
160 x 1 (pr)

Walking lunges:
3x10 weighted

Good mornings:
3x10 with 135

Notes: i need to step up my mobility game.

7-18-15

ME
Cycle 1, 531 week

Axle strict press
Bar x 10
95x10
110x5
125x3
140x8 (PR est max 177)

Chin-ups
5x10

Incline bench press
110x5
125x5
140x5

Face-pulls
2x10

Dips
70 total reps

Hammer curls
5x10

HER
Cycle 3, 531 week

Deadlift
Ramped to 155x7 (pr)
185 x 1 -big pr! This had been a longtime goal of hers and she ripped it off of the floor.

Squats
Bar 5x10

Reverse crunches
5x10

Bilateral kickbacjs
3x10-20

Leg curls
3x10-20

Machine calf raises
3x10-20

7-20-16
Cycle 1, 531 week

Front Squat (no pause)
Bar x 5
135 x 5
175 x 5
200 x 5
225 x 5

Romanian Deadlift:
245 x 5
280 x 5
320 x 5

Walking Lunges
5 x10

Ab wheel
5 x 15

Bilateral kick-back machine
50 reps

7-24-16
Cycle 1, 3s week

Events Day

-Went wayy off course here and just did whatever.

High bar narrow stance Back squats: ramped to 275x1

Bench: Ramped to 185 x5

Snatch-grip deadlifts: 10x2 with 135

log cleans: like 30 reps

squats: 135 x 20

Notes
Need to reign in this day. Didn’t enjoy the squats and bench like I thought I would. Going back to back to events day’s original design which is:

Log Clean & press
Yoke
farmers
stones (A)
Carry/drag (B)

Outside area is STILL FUCKING CLOSED.
so I may get a little weird on the carry drag stuff.

But ideally, I need my days to at least look like

  • Log C&P: 351, Jerk singles/doubles, drop-set C&P
  • Carries: Log carries have been doing me right (Thanks Thibs)
  • Stones/Carry drag medley: gonna hold-off on this still at least another cycle, but I liked the Snatch-grip deads I did yesterday so, I can use 'em for a cycle to sub here.

Cycle 2, 3s week

Lots of shoulder warm up on cables then

Axle Press
Bar x 10
100 x 3
120 x 3
135 x 8

Pull-ups
4 x 10

Incline bench
105 x 8
120 x 8
135 x 6

Cross body hammer curls
4 x 10

Narrow pushups
30, 16
-Feel these way more in my tris, lats and superspenstus (?)

Hanging leg raises
4 x 10

10 hill sprints ( fiancee got to do these with me. Poor thing has been working some ridiculous hours)

You’re lucky that your g/f is so on board. My best relationships with women turned out to be when I was dating fellow martial artists in my early twenties. Unfortunately I married a woman who was into yoga and we had pretty conflicting ideas about exercise and diet. I didn’t realize it would be a problem because she didn’t start pestering me about it until after the wedding. Now she’s my ex-wife, but for other reasons.

Thanks for sharing that insight man. Yeah I take it for granted sometimes, but get reminded how thankful I should be often. She was my biggest cheering section at my comp and went out to buy kt tape, muscle cream, ice packs… shit I never thought of. Honestly I don’t think she was into it all when we began dating, but when she realized how big it was in my life she made a real effort to get into it, and she loved it when she did. Hell she competed way before I even did.

Funny thing how the little stuff that we don’t see as a big deal can sometimes make it or break it. My buddy & his live-in girlfriend broke up recently. He said (to me a at least) that one of the biggest reasons was music. They couldn’t stand each other’s music. I thought it was a bit silly at first and, but he reminded me how much something like music permeates life and serves as a reflection of sorts into a persons culture & persona. Made sense then.

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7-28-16
Cycle 2, 3s week

Front squats (no pause)
10 x bar
3 x 95
3 x 170
3 x 195
8 x 210

Romanian deadlift
8 x 135
8 x 225
8 x 275
6 x 315

100 bodyweight squats

Alrighty, back in action.

Took a vacation to the Pacific Northwest, did a while lot of hiking and walking. Walked more than three marathons worth. Last week was my first back but was busy and just beat to be honest.

Got in a sesh Friday which was:
Bench
45x5
95x5
135x5
185x5
225x2

Db bench
65 x 3x8-12

Db row
65 x 4x10-15

Face pulls with a 3 second pause
50 reps

Hanging ab circuit


Saturday:
Box squats (not squats to a box)
45x5
95x5
135x5
185x5
225x5
245x3

Step ups (parallel thigh)
95 x 3x10

Cable wrist rollers
5-10 sets

Pull-troughs
4 x10-20

Boom.

Goals haven’t changed, still want that 500 pull, 185 strict press, and the sub 6 mile. I like the pressing day of 531 strongman but couldn’t get the rest done during the times i trained, plus i realized i wasn’t getting in the sprinting work i needed. Switched to ws4sb. My joints get achy when i spend too much time on the same movement and my adhd has a hard time with rigidity. For the press, i need more upperbody muscle, for the heavy pull, i need fullbody strain and everything to fire. For the mile i need hills and sprints. Wsfsb was made for all of this, so I’ve got a lot of confidence here. Gonna do the version where upper body and running are done during the week and the me lower session is done on the weekends. I think this’ll be more time-concious, as i like training during my lunch break. I can super-set the upper body stuff and get in some hard sprinting and have a shower within an hour, but lower body not so much.

Anyway. Wanting to do another comp soon so I’m on the lookout.

Monday 8/22/16
Conditioning
2 mile run

Notes: the run felt nice internally speaking but it’s pretty hot outside. Had to stop a few times for my dog but all-in-all decent run. Not timed


Tuesday 8/23/16
RE Upper
A1) Push-ups: 25-15-10
A2) Rope pull-ups: 4 x 8
A3) reverse crunches: 3 x 20ish
B1) Diamond push-ups: 3 x 10-15
B2) inverted rope rows with bicep emphasis: 3x10
B3) reverse crunches: 3 x 20ish
C) inverted rope rows with medial delt emphasis

Notes: I wanted to do this outside but apparently the shitty, bum-infested park in which I train bodyweight movements was condemned in my absence. But it turned out to be a good thing (lol). I took my ropes to the seawall and hung them on one of these gazebos that line the sea wall and did all my work there. Still pretty bummy but I prefer the company of the bums whom decide to reside at the seawall versus the ones whom slept in the aforementioned park.

Thursday 8/25/16
Conditioning
12 minutes EMOM Hill sprints

Notes: by myself I can run this hill in 10-11 seconds. Had my dog with me though so it was closer to 12-15 seconds for these sprints. Trying to get her conditioning back up! Gettin’ a little thick around the middle lol.


Friday 8/26/16
ME Upper

Bench:
45 x 5
95 x 5
185 x 5 (last couple of reps were really slow)
205 x 5
225 x 2-1 < Had more in the tank after 2 reps than last week, but not enough for a third rep. I had to make up with a cluster rep (10 second rest)

DB bench
65lbs x like 25 reps, rest-pause

wide-grip Chest-supported row
45 x 5
90 x 5
135 x 5
95 x 9 (drop-set)
45 x 10-15 (drop-set)

Single arm face-pulls w/ shoulder rotation
like 30 for each arm.

Decline sit-ups:
bodyweight x 10
+10lbs (behind the neck) 20 reps rest-pause

Notes: I’m sure I’m just doing it wrong, but when I try to get tight in the bench as described by the likes of Wendler or Tate (feet tucked, etc) I feel WAY less stable than when My legs are spread out in front of me.

Saturday 8/27/16
Conditioning

30 minute easy run w/ the pup


Sunday 8/28/16

ME-
Max Effort Lower

Box Squats
45x5
95x5
185x5
225x5
245x3

Front rack reverse lunges
45 x 10 (each leg)
95 x 10
95 x 10
65 x 10

Cable Wrist Roller
5 sets

Cable pull-throughs
3-4 x 10-15

Notes: really getting some great hinge action with the pull-throughs. I go horizontal torso to nearly vertical torso and they really hit my posterior chain well without any negative affect on my low back.

HER:
LOWER

Low Box Squats
10x3 EMOM with 70lbs

Front Squats
5x5 w/ 45

RDLs
like 50 total reps w/ 65lbs

leg isolations

Her notes: She’s never done front squats as she never quite got how to position them on her body. Since I’ve learned a lot more about them myself recently, she learned to shrug her shoulders together to where the bar was against her throat, spread her knees and drive through her back, keeping the back tight.

HER GOALS: she really wants to learn the Olympic lifts. I’m not a great oly lifter by any stretch, but I want to exhaust whatever knowledge I have for her. I didn’t want her cleaning if she didn’t know how to front squat, or snatch if she was unfamiliar with snatch-grip deadlifts. Right now we’re just trying to establish a foundation.


----- COMPETITION UPDATES -----

So there are two competitions that I’m looking to participate in:

  • Half marathon on November 5th
  • 3rd Coast Strongman on January 28th

For the half marathon, I want to beat my time of 1:56 (I think that’s what it was). Lifting or not I want a respectable half time.

For the strongman competition, there is no under 175 so I’ll be competing under 200. the events for that class (currently) are:

  • Press Medley: 120# dumbbell, 200# axle, 220# log for reps
  • Frame carry: 400-450# for 60’
  • Texas/Husafell stone carry: Max distance, weight tbd (the below class is a 220# keg)
  • Fire Truck pull: 60’
  • Stones over bar in 60 seconds: 48", 270/300#

So for those counting, that is a loading, an overhead, and THREE carry events, and surprisingly no deadlifts (which, to be honest I’m pretty happy about).

So, training-wise I’ll keep doing what I’m doing. WS4SB and running hills as conditioning, and in November transition the conditioning portion from running to loaded carries. Depending on where I’m at in Novmeber this could be moving from a ws4sb1 set-up to a ws4sb2 set-up.

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Tuesday 8/30/16
RE Upper

Dips: about 50 reps rest-pause
Triceps push-down: 3 x 10-20
Pull-ups: 15 reps
3-way shoulder circuit: 3 x 5-4-3-2-1 w/ 10 lbs
Single-arm cable pull-down: 20 reps each arm rest-pause
Barbell bicep curls: like 20 reps rest-pause

Notes:
Felt rough yesterday. Little sleep, insufficient nutrition, and way too much caffeine throughout the day. So I decided to go for lower intensity stuff

The comp. sounds really brutal! I wih you best of luck with your prep. Where does your log stand at the moment?

I once ran 24 km, not in a competition though. I will definitely never do that again :smiley: wrecked my back.

Thanks @Koestrizer!

Well right now I’m just trying to build up a bit. I only weigh 175lb/79kg at 6’/183cm, and I look “athletic” but not big. I decided on ws4sb since it fits my psychological profile better than 531, in that it has a built-in way to funnel my shiny object syndrome. Plus it’s made with lots of running in mind.

The half marathon is more or less a way to have a short term goal to keep myself occupied; a mental challenge more than physical. I don’t want it to pull too much away from my strongman aspirations though, so my aim is to improve my half by improving my mile time.

I heard that tip while reading about how some ultra runner trains, where he actually spends some of his off-season or whatever running hills, 400m repeats, etc. His thinking was that you can never expect to have a good marathon time if your best mile is 9 minutes, so by improving your mile, you improve your overall pace. So I’m just going to do hills (usually EMOMs), and shorter runs. I doubt I’ll do any runs over 5k (this is about where my enjoyment level drops-off).

24k is far! Since you’ve ran that I know you’ll get me when I say that at a certain point you know it’s not going to suck much worse and the damage is already done (I suppose more cheery folks generously dub this the runner’s high). I was useless afterwards too.

In November post-race, I’m going to shift over to event training. Since there are so many carry events, I’ve been reading up one some ways to program them. They’re main lifts, so I don’t really want them at the end of the workout. To get more event exposure, I’m even mulling a cube for strongman type set-up like:

Squat day: sled drag
Press day: press medley, front carry
Pull day: Stones, trap bar carry

Thanks for the support as always!

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Yesterday 9/1/2016
Conditioning

approx. 1 mile run in 8-9 minutes (with my dog) on pavement/asphault.

Notes: I ran pretty hard on this one but not full-tilt. Really I just wanted to get a feel for it.

Haha I can perfectly relate to that!

Very interesting approach! I am looking forward to see how it works out.

Haha don’t count me in with that crowd. For me my running technique and anatomical structre are really bad. Running brings a lot of pain and I am not really limited by my lungs or muscle conditioning (well maybe nowadays) but by my body being in pain (back, shins, shoulders, inner knee). Good thing I played soccer for about 12 years and ran a lot, huh? :smiley:
I think that did more damage than lifting probably ever will.

As for progression on carries: You could use 5/3/1 for that aswell. That is what I plan on doing.