Road to Wales strongest man 2013 ...........competing in not winning of :D

7/1/2013

Deadlifts

First deads session since pb ,plan was to hit 80/85/90 percent of 1rm for 4/3/2 reps respectively to maintain strength from the floor and then go on to 18" rack pulls as the first event in this years Welsh is silver dollar for max.

Deads from floor

10 mins warmup/stretching

60k x 10 -fast

60k x 10 -fast

100k x 4

140k x 4

180k x 4

220k x 4

240k x 4 (80%)

255k x 3 (85%)

Stopped here , back was stupidly pumped and wanted to save something for 18s

18" rack pulls ( actually 17 and a bit lol)

220 x 2

260 x 2

300 x 2

Knocked it on the head , 300 double felt easy but back was on fire from the earlier work to the point of almost being numb and im still wary of losing form so not being able to feel whats firing is a big no no, original plan for the next few months was to pull from 18" after every dead session but realised tonight thats just not realistic or smart , gonna try alternate weeks with a session dedicated to one or the other and see how that goes , on the whole not a bad session and still on track

nice dead session buddy

Cheers mate

8/1/2013

Overheads

My OH sessions have been really up and down last few months and I keep second guessing my gym work but after and easy log pb last event session down Simons theres obviously been an improvement so not gonna panic so much over the gym work and just accept that I am slowly getting there.

Strict press

5 mins warmup/stretching

60k x 10

60k x 10

70k x 4

80k x 4

90k x 4

100k x 2 - tough

Pushpress

100k x 4 - bas***d knee!! Got 1 rep but pain in my dodgy right knee was instant and pretty much unbearable , still hoping its tendonitis but wont know for sure till I speak to my doc again.

Back to strict

100k x 2

95k x 4

90k x 4

80k x 4

60k x 10

Called it a night , pissed off about my knee but im hoping that laying off squats for a couple of weeks will make a difference , still gonna do yoke and gonna try slow shallow leg presses and hack squats as the pain is only really bad when I squat deep or move sharply , fingers crossed it is only tendonitis

10/1/2013

Leg session

Thrown the towel in as far as deep squats go for the next few weeks , knee pain is only really bad at around or below parallel so biting the bullet and dropping them for now , as long as I can maintain leg strength for yoke pick ups it shouldnt be a problem in the short term and hopefully should go someway to resolving the issue in the long term.


Leg press - to fully warm up and stretch.

10 mins warm up/stretching

1 plate a side x 10 - slow and solid , maybe 2/3 of regular movement

2 plates a side x 10 - as above

3 plates a side x 10 - as above

Squats with safety bars on highest setting and dead stop each rep

60k x 10

100k x 4

140k x 4

160k x 2 - really tough but very little pain

160k x 2

Squat pick ups to simulate yoke pick ups , around 4" rom and walking on spot for 10 secs

180k x 4

220k x 4

260k x 4

300k x 4 - amazing how tough 300k on a bar feels compared to 300k on yoke

300k x 4

Leg extensions - avoiding fully locking out and keeping tension on at all times.

4 sets x 10 light to medium weight just to get blood pumping


Done , strangest leg/squat session ive had in a long time but felt like I had done some good and crucially very little pain , quarter squats should be fine for building or at least maintaining strength as far as the yoke is concerned , only prob I can see me having is log cleans and stones as I sit very deep on both but hopefully they wont aggravate it too much , find out on the weekend now

Nice work mate, I'll give you a number for my Physio on Sunday if you're still coming.
12.30 ok?

Cheers Si yeah 12.30 is great , I'm hoping that by taking it easy and plenty of icing I can break the cycle and get the inflamation sorted , obviously pushing on thru and hoping for the best wasnt my brightest idea lol

I spotted your 120 log PB on the chart and thought I'd pop in to say "well done", but I can't see it among your recent sessions.

Cheers mate I havent been listing my event sessions so far but gonna start from tomorrow as it goes , last 6 months my gym work has been quite structured and any event training has been a little haphazard , thats switching round now with the focus shifting to events and the gym work will be taking a back seat , still got a routine in place but whereas I was in the gym 4 times a week thats down to 3 so I can hit the events hard on the weekend ,also I wont be going all out for gym pbs running up to the Welsh open , Im getting too old to focus on both tbh

13/1/2013

Event session dowm Simon Ts ( just for Wayne)

Yoke runs - All 20m with drop and turn on 10m

125

175

275

310 - slow but steady , going up 10k each session to hit 440k

Stones - all to 53" all single lifts with a rest between

115 x 3

127 x 2

140 x 2 - fail , lapped easily but no hope of loading , tacky was solid due to cold and having not trained stones for 6months my technique was somewhat lacking .

Did mess about with 100kg keg and axle but nothing worth logging on here tbh , happy with yoke but a bit of a wake up on the stones , thought I could just start back and still be doing160 plus but wasnt to be , one problem was my new belt isnt tapered and I couldn't get down to lap the stones with it on so had to go beltless , have to decide now whether to pick up a tapered belt or perservere without and see if I actually benefit in the longrun , decisions decisions ..........but nice ones

nice yoke mate, passed that 300k mark is horrible on the blood pressure!!!

Cheers mate yoke is just plain horrible full stop lol , got up to 360 last year but never felt comfortable , this time round I'm taking it steady and increasing the weight slowly but don't think its an event ill ever fall in love with tbh

14/1/2013

Deads and assistance

18" Deads from rack

10 mins warmup/stretching

100k x 10

140k x 4

180k x 4

220k x 4

260k x 2

280k x 2

300k x 2 - tough

310k x 1 - Fail!! Two attempts at this and no go.

Seated row on hammer lever machine , alternate arms

1 plate x 10

2 plates x 10

3 plates x 4

4 plates x 4

4.5 plates x 4

Done , bit pissed off missing 310 but confident that I would get it easily from blocks , never feel strong doing rack pulls esp as the gym rack is really narrow so no give in bar at all . Rows felt strong , bout time I did some focused upper back work , been lazy last few months lol

15/1/2013

Overhead session

Strict press into PP

10 mins warmup/stretching

60k x 10 + 4

60k x 10 + 4

80k x 4 + 2

90k x 4 + 2

100k x 2 + 2

Just PP

110k x 3

115k x 2

100k x 4

100k x 4

60k x 10 + 4 BTNJ

60k x 10 + 4 BTNJ

Done , felt strong and explosive throughout , could have gone heavier on PP but need to get out of the habit of carrying on till failure so not going heavier until I can hit 3 good reps on any given weight , last 4 sets were done with minimal rest between and delts were pumped to fook by the end Back in the groove hopefully

Good couple of sessions big fella.