LIGHT TRAINING AND STRONGMAN NEWS

This past Friday my wife and I went "home" to visit our families.  It's great because they only live about 12 miles apart, and we usually see both families every time we go.  Friday night I got to watch my sister-in-law play a JV basketball game.  She was in for nearly the entire game and is very scrappy.  It'll be exciting to see what she can do as a senior when she has crisper passes and a smoother shot.  Anyway, on Saturday the high school she plays at had an open gym, so her and I went and we scrimmaged for just over an hour.  Needless to say, weightlifting is not the best option if you want to run up and down a basketball court (though of course it's a great way to get stronger and faster for ANY sport).  I thought I was going to fall over, I had a splitting headache, and I could never catch my breath.  Luckily we took a break after the first hour, and my body was okay the second time around.  My quads and calves are still a little sore, but all-in-all, I'm doing okay, and it goes to show you that weightlifting can offset a lot of the soreness one might feel after doing a new activity.  I also could just "feel" that I was stronger with the ball and dribbling than I had been in college and high school.

On to lifting.  Sunday was going to do some tire flipping, but was too tired out from basketball the day before.  I just did what I like to call my "Anti-sitting" workout, or recovery session.  Basically I do any lifts or stretches that counteract all the sitting I do in my car and at my job.  Lots of hip thrusts (glutes), rear foot elevated split squats (stretch out the hip flexors), and lots of work for my shoulders, scapula, lower traps (to prevent the "forward-lean" posture).  I felt much better after the hour session.  I need to do these sessions more often, because I always feel great when I'm done.

In some exciting news, I contacted a local strongman group in northeast Wisconsin, and I think I will be traveling on Saturday to train with them!  I am really excited to learn from people who are stronger than me and are interested in the same sport that I am.  I will have to drive about an hour and 45 minutes one way, though.  That means I have to get up before 6 AM on a Saturday!  Not looking forward to that, but I can't pass up this opportunity.  Hopefully I'll get to know the guys well, and maybe I can get up there twice a month to train.

No training tonight, just a few beers with a buddy.  Tomorrow will be light stuff again.  Have a great day everyone.

Training and Good News

Writing this on my phone so I will be brief. I squatted yesterday with the normal group of lifters. I hit a 415 squat with no belt or wraps (RAW DOG as I like to say). So that was awesome! Also got the gym's code for the lock to the basement! So I've got access to the tractor tire and room for farmers walks. Today I benched and rowed and did some conditioning after by hitting my sledgehammer against the tire a bunch of times (more fun than it sounds). Going to be doing some light lifting tomorrow night, and probably won't lift until Wednesday... Going to a conference in Chicago on Tuesday

THE BIG BAD LOG

Tonight's training was a good solid session.  Slowly progressing...

BTN push press: worked up to 170x7

Barbell Curl: 105x10,11,11

Rear Delt Raise: 50x10, 10, 10, 10

Chin-ups (wish there was a belt to hang weight from): Bodyweight x 6, 6, 6, 6, 8

DB row: 150x22 per side

Log Press: worked up to 200x3.  Felt pretty solid.  Best is 225x1.

The competition I'm in uses a 10" to 12" log (I'm guessing).  Ours is 14".  The harder it is in training, the easier it'll be in competition.

Training and a Competiiton

Well I'm taking the plunge and decided to do a strongman competition.  The date is June 2nd, and right now the events are a tire flip for distance, farmer's walk for distance, atlas stone loading, sled pull, and log press for maximum weight.  Right now at my gym, I've got the farmer's walk handles (at home too), and 14" log.  We also have a tire, but right now it's locked away in the basement, so I can't get at it.  I'll have to figure that one out soon.  I've got some atlas stones here at home, but they are not very heavy, and I'd like to get one or two more to train with.  I also have a homemade wooden sled.  It's not that great though and really hard to load weight onto.  The sled at the competition is supposedly being loaded with 550 pounds, so I need to figure out how to get something heavy on it.

On to training:

Monday I did bench pressing and decided I need to up my training weight just a little bit.  215 for 12 reps isn't anything spectacular, but I wasn't expecting 12 reps, and I need to work heavier.  Tonight I did some light hip thrusts, some overhead pressing, and light farmer's walks.  Not sure how much the farmer's handles weigh at the gym, but my guess is around 40 pounds... I just call it 45 pounds in my training log because it's easy to add the weight in my head (since 45 pounds is the same as a normal barbell).  Tomorrow night I'll be doing some deadlifts, and maybe practicing more cleans.  I did hit a 215 pound clean this past weekend.  It wasn't too hard, and I hope to progress quickly.  I also got a present in the mail (from myself!) and I'll post video of me playing around with it soon!

MASSAGE: ROUND 1

Last night I had my first ever massage!  I actually had it done by a woman I lift with at our gym.  She does massages on the side in addition to her normal job.  It was awesome!  I will say that massages seemed geared toward the feminine side of society, which is fine!  There were candles lit, and the room I was in smelled really great (lavender???).  I guess I'm not sure what you would do to cater more towards men.  Maybe play death metal while they're lying on the table?  Anyway, it was a great experience, and I will definitely be going back.  I also would like to try myofascial release at some point.  I've heard that it's not very relaxing, but that your muscles feel so much better after having a session or two.

Oh look!  Groupon for myofascial release!  Coincidence?  I think not; it's destiny.

HELLO? STILL HERE!

It's been a while since I've posted, mostly because there's been nothing worth posting.  My schedule's been kind of messed up since getting back home for the new year, but it will be back on track on Saturday.  I've still been able to get in all my lifting though.  Last night was overhead pressing.  I need to start consolidating my exercises, because sometimes I do too many different ones.  It would just be faster, easier, and possibly more effective if I just did a few more sets of the same big exercises.  Last night was a good example of how I'd like to set things up for pressing:

Behind-the-neck press:  worked up to 215 x 1.  This felt really good, even though I had a really crappy (slippery) bar.  Handfuls of chalk helped a little bit.
Barbell Row: last time I did 4 sets of 285x6.  Last night my back was a little bit sore from deadlifting, so I could only do one set of those. Then I just did 225 x 8 for 4 sets instead.
Barbell Curl: 105 x 10 x 3 sets
Log Clean and Press (cleaned each rep this time): 135 x 4, 155x4, 175x4, 195x3
The log felt pretty good.  I think my best on this is 225 x 1, so I am going to try to incorporate more rep work into my routine so I can be proficient with this monster log we have.
Okay, that's all for now.  Getting a massage tonight (first time ever!).  I'll let you know how that goes later in the week.  It should be pretty awesome!

CATCHING UP FOR THE NEW YEAR

Hope everyone reading this had a great Christmas and wonderful New Year!  I had a relaxing break from work where I did nothing but sleep, eat food, watch football and lift weights.  Even hit a few personal records!  I kept doing what I normally do, because I was fortunate enough to get in a gym in my hometown that is the same old-school type place that I lift in now.  If I remember correctly, I hit 405 on the squat (no belt), and 505 on the deadlift (also no belt).  I think I did a behind-the-neck press of 215, and a bench of 275 or 285 (not sure).  The benches were definitely not what I'm used to.  The uprights were very short and not adjustable.  So I had to have someone help me lift the weight off.  Unfortunately that made me feel like a loser because about 20 minutes after I did my benching, a guy my age was benching 335 multiple times without a spotter or liftoff.  So...I got a ways to go on that one.  He was a good guy to chat with though, and he tried to teach me how to do power cleans.  I will be implementing them soon in my training.


As part of my Christmas present (thanks honey!), I bought some bumper plates and a fat bar.  I bought 4, 45 pound plates from Rogue Fitness, and a hollow fat bar from EliteFTS.  I’m hoping that, since the bar is hollow, it holds up okay over time.  But I’ll be practicing cleans with that so that my grip can develop a bit.  It is absolutely horrible now.  So now I’ve got a pretty good collection of strongman equipment at my house: farmer’s walks handles, super yoke/conan’s wheel, 2 atlas stones (that are already too light for me), and a fat bar.  My gym has a log and a tire (if I can get at it in the spring).  I should be pretty good to go.  Not exactly sure how I’m going to program the strongman lifts into my training yet, but I’ll be sure to post some thoughts later.  Have a good weekend everyone.