Vinny's Strongman Log II

9/13/16

Paused Front Squat to Box
135x3,3 i knew from the warm ups that this day was gonna suck…
185x3
225x3
275x3
325x3
365x3
365x3
365x3
belt off
325x3
300x3
275x3

Wasn’t sure going into this if pausing to a box was going to be more difficult than pausing in the hole, and yep, it was much more difficult pausing to a box, likely because it removes the stretch reflex. I really felt this hammering my quads, and the lack of speed coming from the bottom position made it more difficult to hold onto the bar. This was HARD. I’ll try to work on these more because it seems to really be exploiting my baby quads.

Pause Tire Flips
700x3,3,3,3,3

Tire Flip/Burpee Medley (brutal, and it wasn’t even that much; one minute rest periods)
700x5/x10
700x5/x10
700x5/x10
700x5/x11

9/15/16

I’ll be most definitely competing January 14th, 2017, at Brute’s NAS Strongest Man IX in Norfolk, VA. Will be competing as an Open 231.

Events are as followed:

Deadlift Medley

305 per hand farmers x 1
550lb 18" deadlift x 1
600lb frame x 1
450lb Axle x AMRAP

Okay so this event seems strangely light. I’d like to aim for 12-15 reps by comp time on the axle. We’ll see.

Chain Medley Drag 40’

Drag 510lb chain 40’, pick up 900lb chain and drag 40’

Not much to say about this. I have a feeling this will be the hardest event at this show. As of today, the 200’s and 175’s only have to drag a 400-500lb chain. The MW’s and heavy’s have to drag one almost twice as heavy. What the actual fuck?

Front Hold Car Battery Style (weights TBD)

Never trained for this or seen it in a show, will be interesting.

Log Clean & Press Each Rep

230lb Log AMRAP in 60 seconds

Light weight on the log for me, very confident in this one, obviously.

Carry and Load Medley

240lb Keg 25’, 170 odd stone 20’, 220lb Sandbag 15’, final implement TBD

Straight forward event, will come down to who’s the fastest it seems.

Top 2 qualify for nationals in each open class. I’m definitely going to do everything in my power to make that happen.

2 Likes

9/15/16

Keg Emulation Carry (carry for 20 feet, drop repick, carry back for 20 feet, 5 rounds total)
185lbs x40’
185lbs x40’
185lbs x40’
185lbs x40’
185lbs x40’

Moderate intensity on the above sets. I’m using a loading sleeve that attaches to a yoke, and loading it with 45lbs and it ends up being picked and carried in the same way as a keg, so that’s convenient.

Sled Drags (fed a bolt through two links and got em together so i can pull with a metal rod to facilitate my ability to pull actual heavy sleds, this was fucking brutal)
280 tire x70’, super easy
280 tire+100lb DB x50’…not easy
280 tire+140lbs x50’ oh my god. I was moving about as slow as a snail and I think it caught some stingy asphalt once or twice and I had to rebreak inertia. Agony. I mean not hard on the breathing, but the strain on the whole body…I felt every ligament and sinew being stretched from my lats, traps, all the way down to my fingers and toes. Love it though, somehow.
280 tire+140lbs x50’, x50’

Moderate day, and I’ll learn to gauge intensities appropriately as things roll forward. The experience I’ve gleaned in learning my body has helped immensely. Also, given the lighter weights and events of this show, there’s no reason why I can’t put on the best showing of my life so far.

Vinny, do you want to participate in a really stupid race? I want to see which one of us can hit a 450 pound, no gear front squat first.

I hate and love you at the same time for issuing this challenge LOL. Honestly, also, astounded. What’s your PR on it anyway? I’m honestly only within 35lbs of it. You’ll probably still beat me to it because I suck at getting my front squat stronger.

OH 450lb, I read that as 500lbs. I’ve already hit 460 a year or two ago D:

Oh god, you hit that beltless? I thought you were incredibly weak at beltless work. My max seems to be around 375-ish without a belt. But what the hell, 500 pounds beltless, paused. I want to see this happen, though it’ll probably take a year or two for me to hit it.

I might have quads if I hit that. lol

I’m incredibly weak on deadlifts without a belt. And shit, by no gear, I thought you meant PED’s LOL.

Tbh, I might be good for a 450lb beltless front squat right now, but that’s a tough asking. I’ll definitely see if I can hit it soon. And fyi, fuck no, I will NOT be pausing a 500lb front squat without a belt anytime soon lmao. I’m trying to just hit that with a belt and non-pause.

You are going to kill this dude. Excited to see how it goes!

Dunno, what do you think is an appropriate race? Also no, lol, I never refer to PEDs as gear, though I definitely have seen them called that before.

9/17/16 - It looks like I’ll be pressing twice a week. Once, this day, as a static day, and then later again on an entire event designated day (after all the previous work, considering the press event is the second to last event in the show.)

Strict Log
110x3,3,3
160x3
210x1
230x5 all strict
230x4 strict+1 push press
230x3 strict+2 push presses
230x4 strict+1 push press
230x4 strict+1 push press

Z Press +band resistance
45+bands x 10
95+bands x 10
145+bands x 7
145+bands x 5
145+bands x 4 okay yeah, triceps were not wanting to lock the bands out toward the top
drop set
115+bands x 7 hit a wall hard at 7
95+bands x 8 triceps are shot

Rear delts and done

Thanks man, I hope so!

@Destrength Honestly, I don’t even know. I don’t really train my front squat heavy without a belt, I’d just go for heavy singles or PR sets without one to test strength. I’m just shooting for a 5 plate FS with a belt and no pause right now. I’m not as tenacious as you!

PEDS LAMO!!! Hahaha

Dun mak fun of meeee D:

9/19/16 - Okay, I have no idea what kind of race we should do @Destrength, though todays workout was really fucking cool. Shirtless and sweating like a fucking idiot so that the bar can slide all over I did…

EMOM for 10 minutes, Beltless Pause Front Squat: 315x2

This was pretty fucking tough for me but I didn’t think I’d miss any reps. By the 7th minute I was dismayed to have to rehold my rack position with only like 30 seconds of rest toward the end because I was being lazy on some of the sets, but otherwise the reps were strong.

One Motion Tire Flips
700x5,x5,x5,x5,x5 pretty tough toward the end but all clean reps, just hard to sustain explosiveness with a heavy tire like that

Then I came up with a conditioning circuit in my head that ended up being the most difficult thing I’ve had to do in recent memory. Being out in the sun and heat made it worse.

10 Burpees to plyo jump onto tire, then 10 hammer to tire swings. After that, I repeated, but with 9 reps on each exercise, then all the way down to 1 reps per. Honestly I wish I could say I completed it all with no rest, but after the first set of 10 reps I literally quit and fell to the floor and just heaved saying “Nope not gonna happen.” So in theory, that would have been the FIRST conditioning circuit/medley I’d have ever quit on…and so that premise alone was enough for me to get up on my feet and do what I set out to do, even if it was seemingly impossible.

Given the fact that this was absurdly difficult, in between each round, I’d drop to the ground inside the shade of my garage and just heave and lament. I mean on paper it sounds so easy…but oh my fucking god I kept muttering “I am going to die, I’m going to die.”

Never again… (just kidding)

9/21/16 - Deadlifts and log. Since the contest weights are already pretty light, I went with weights that weren’t far off and just took them for some reps stopping a few short of failure. BW 229

Axle Deadlifts (conventional, straps)
250x3
320x3
410x15 worked for this, but had 2-3 more reps in the tank. Have not done an axle deadlift since 2013 and I can actually somehow say it felt better using an axle for conventional than a barbell, at least with light weights.

Goal is to hit contest weight (450) for 15 reps or more in training and hopefully to match that in the medley, though 60 sec time limit is a bit silly to me.

Battery Hold
25lbs somewhere around a minute and change

Log Clean and Press (clean and press every rep)
110x5
160x5,5
200x10 took belt off at the second rep because instead of using the smaller one, I used the big 13mm and it just got in the way.

Maybe a race to a 275 snatch? Or something silly like whoever can do the highest max set of a 100 pound dumbbell by July?

Dude, good luck at the Show! I may be making that trip down there to coach some athletes, maybe we can meet up! I’ll keep you posted!

Good luck for your prep man! Very excited to follow along!
For me the show sound incredibly hard. Then again I am not nearly as strong as you are :smiley:

@Alpha Thanks! Yeah, that’d be cool as hell to meet up with you man, definitely looking forward to it.

@Destrength Every snatch I’ve ever done has been a power or muscle snatch, though, I’m flattered you think I’m strong enough to power snatch 275 with no oly lifting training hahaha. Seriously though, that is your goal to attain first, or period. Why not just throw me some weird workouts you devise my way and I’ll try to match you, so long as it’s fairly ambiguous and not too catered to one specialty? (or strongman, if you make it about that, I’ll totally do it.)

@Koestrizer Thanks. I promise, good things come to those who never stop being consistent. Valleys and mountains man.

9/23/16 - Almost feel like a strict pressing day is superfluous, but yet I must spend time working on something, and stability with no belt on a super wobbly/precarious log press seems to be the best way to take action in this avenue lol. Sometimes I feel like my lower back is going to explode from doing this near failure…but…yeah.

Strict Log w/ Band Suspended Weight (25lbs suspended per side)
110x3,3,3
140lbs+50lbs x5
140lbs+50lbs x5
140lbs+50lbs x5
140lbs+50lbs x4, belt on for this, but took it off right after
130lbs+50lbs x5, subscap is kind of bugging me, been bothering me on front squats mainly

Axle Bench (kind of trying to rehab the titty, the burpees i’ve been doing have actually been aggravating my pec minor slightly)
160x20
180x15
180x15
180x10 triceps completely spent

Horizontal Row w/ band
x15
x15
x15
x15

9/25/16 - For sure had the strength for a set with 365…but something bad happened. Meh.

Front Squat
135x3,3,3
185x3
225x2
275x2
325x1
365x3 entire right side of my body went numb on the third rep and I dumped and stumbled then completely fell over and went unconscious. Nice.
365x3 happened again.

365 is 75% of my max, and 75% of my deadlift max is 500lbs…of which I’ve repped out for 14 in a single set. Interesting how 3 reps can fuck me with such a sub max load, but that’s front squats for you. Precarious as hell, and my dumb body doesnt do well with it.

Beltless Paused FS to Box
135x10
185x10
225x8
245x8
275x8
275x8
275x8
225x8
185x10
135x10

SO hard.

Some abs and done. Destroyed.