You Better, You Better, You Bet.

[Renascent]

My back has been mostly cooperative, but has apparently tagged out to my shoulder, with occasional Texas Tornado matches...

There's nothing funny about pain, though I'll admit that I laughed at this sentence. A Texas Tornado tag match describes this phenomenon pretty succinctly...

[lehman906]

Doing a bit better this week. No flare ups in my back, and my shoulder seems cooperative as long as I warm it up well. I’ve kept the non-event day fatigue very manageable, especially since this was the first week back at school, and far and away more exhausting. I’m doing the little exercises to strengthen my whole shoulder girdle, and all of my back off leg work is on the belt squat. It’s been a good week overall, and I couldn’t be happier that the kids are back in school, but I am missing some parts of the last year.

Just over three weeks until the contest! Then it’s a week totally off and back to focusing on pressing a big log.

[media] [/media]

[lehman906]

9/8
Good solid week of training. I think I’ve found a good balance throughout the week of movements that will help me without beating me up, allowing me to go into event day fresh. I’m only doing a top single on front squats, followed by only two sets of high rep, high intensity belt squats, which seems to be working pretty well for what I need right now. Following pressing work with light upper back/rear delt/shoulder stability stuff is also feeling good, although all of this could just be due to the reduction in total workload. Whatever the case, last Saturday was solid as we went through all of the events, and nothing was too difficult. Highlights include a 20ish second pick and hold with 290/hand on farmers and loading the 300 stone without too much trouble. 17 days out.

[media] [/media]

[lehman906]

9/11
Training is continuing to go well. Lower volume stuff through the week is producing good event days on Sat. This week I did one work set with the log of 190 for 4 in a minute, and think I’ll be good for 5 in the contest. I front squatted 295 for a single and followed it with belt squats with 205. I’m working those towards two sets of 20, and when I get that I’ll add a set. My legs are feeling stronger and less sore.

Today I went through an easy run of 175 stone carry and 585 tire flip. I can push a little faster, but keeping it one gear down lets me train more. I did a few light runs on farmers then a hold with 240/hand (didn’t push to 290/hand like last week), then did a full stone run of 175,205,215,230,275, and failed at 300. That was annoying, but not overly concerning. It was fun one-motioning the first three stones since I’ve never tried that before. I was hoping for more fun and excitement this weekend, but this was a great session, and it was nice hanging out for a beer or two after.

[media] [/media]

[lehman906]

9/18
One week left and feeling pretty good. Ran through almost all of the events today, and there’s no worry of zeroing anything or of any event mauling me so much that it kills the others, so I can focus on maximizing my efficiency. As far as I know there’s only one other guy in my weight class, and he’s a professional strength coach, so the pressure to win is off as well. I just want to have a great showing, and maybe impress some people with what this broken-down ol’ jalopy can do.

Also, my open can of Monster apparently leaped to its death when the fridge was opened earlier, so I’m taking that as a sign that I should just lay in my bed today instead of working out. #listeningtomybody

[media] [/media]

[lehman906]

9/22
Last workout before the contest. I know it’s best to risk going in a little undertrained to ensure being well-rested and not beat up, but stopping my workouts is so hard. #thatswhatshesaid

I did EMOM doubles on the log with a little under contest weight, then a possible PR set of stricts with 120. Added the right-arm only flyes I’ve been doing to fill in the pothole that is my upper pec on that side, some rear delt stuff, and I’m out.

It should be fun. I have most of my support system, although I’m sure missing some key pieces. Contest then all of the food. All sorts of noms.

Event PRs while I hit an age PR!

[media] [/media]

[lehman906]

9/25
Battle at the Brewery. This was a really fun contest. The weights were pretty light, but it was a really fun atmosphere (the brewery was having an Octoberfest, AND we got walk up music!)Half of my coworkers showed up to support me, including one I didn’t even see, and my family drove 7 hours to surprise me! I looked up and stood there stunned watching them walk across the street. That was so incredibly thoughtful; I don’t know if adequately expressed to them how much it meant to me.

got 3rd out of 3 in the 231s, but the other two were 20 lbs heavier and 20 years younger, so I think I did pretty well for a guy celebrating his 47th birthday.

200 lb keg/585 tire flip-47 seconds
240/hand farmers walk-33 seconds
170 log clean and press-6 reps
35 lb Stein front hold-33 seconds
175-300 6 Stone run-49 seconds

The keg was easy enough, and the tire was exhausting because tires are ALWAYS exhausting, but I did it and didn’t feel all of my collected souls (Ginger) leaving my body like I did on Yoke/sandbag medley from the last contest.

Farmers wasn’t too bad for 240/hand. I was never in danger of dropping it because my grip is good for a lot more, but keeping my trunk up and still moving forward got a bit tough at the end. I did a strategic set down at the turn because re-picking is easier for me than straightening out the implements on the move.

Log was only 170, which is way too light. I was a little too careful after getting no-repped last time, and should have blasted out another couple of reps. It’ll be even easier next year when I finally put up a big log over the winter.

The Stein front hold doesn’t favor lanky guys who are all appendages and have weak shoulders, but I did better than expected. Whatever. It’s a stupid event.

Stones were easy-peasy. The only reason the 300 even took me a little bit to get is because it was dusty and I had to re-tack. Note to self: practice one-motioning stones because I hit myself in the junk on each of the first three. That was a bit distracting.

Overall it was an absolute blast, and both guys I competed against got the 350 stone afterwards for funsies. Jacob Bodi, who was helping out and used to compete at nationals, casually shouldered it.

[media] [/media]

[alek]

Congrats! Looked fun. How long have you been doing strongman?

[lehman906]

Congrats! Looked fun. How long have you been doing strongman?

It was a blast. I've been doing this since....2007? 2008? For the last 8 years or so I've only done a small neighborhood-level comp, so doing two sanctioned competitions this summer was definitely a change, but a welcome one. My focus now is going to be finally getting a 250+ log press.

[lehman906]

10/3
Easing back into it. I’ll start my new program on Wed, but I’m just testing some stuff out right now. I worked up to a max on log press, and quickly remembered that I haven’t done anything besides reps in forever. 220 felt heavy. On my lower body days, I’m going to try and combine some hypertrophy and specific conditioning by doing farmers and belt squats for time. Deadlifts will be my strength movement, and it’s awfully nice to be pulling again. 405 felt pretty easy. I’m liking starting it out a little farther from my shins and using more quads. I’m excited to see where my log press is going to go.

Although note to self: wear a shirt while deadlifting-bracing against the belt isn’t a flattering look.

[media] [/media]

[lehman906]

11/7
And we’re back.

I’ve been running Shane Jerman’s 12 week log press focus program, and I’m liking it. I’m still figuring out what to do on my lower body days to assist without incurring too much of a fatigue cost, but I’m settling on light front squats and deadlifts to keep some practice, and linear progressing walking lunges because single leg work is always good for strongman, and especially for a split jerker. Which I WILL stay committed to. Really.

My first deadlift day was….weird. So after deadlifting exactly once in the last four months, I did some very light (like 50%) Deads with a pause on the eccentric today. 5x5 felt absolutely terrible. Waaaay too hard. Tonight, after 90 min of walking around trick or treating, candy, 12 oz of steak and a cocktail, I watched an Adam Bishop video on pulling, remembered how to do it, and went out to the garage and went 135-480 (all the weight I have) in less than 10 min. As you may imagine, this pretty much torpedoed the next log workout, but I’m not going to panic about that. Which is growth, right? Look at me being a bigger man now.

I think the biggest pro to this log program is all of the little assistance work it’s forcing me to do. It’s a LOT more volume for rear delts and traps and triceps than I would do if left to my own devices, and I may even start being better about ab work. Although you won’t see that progress any time soon with all of the doughnuts and candy I’ve been eating.

11/6
Log w/pause in rack and overhead. 2:00 rest
10 sets of 2 with 195

High incline bench. Less pain, but still being conservative and playing with hand placement to find the least irritation.
135x5, 120x5,5

Push ups (instead of the see-saw DB floor press recommended). Slowly reintroducing.
BWx12,12,12,12.

Rolling DB tricep ext
30s x10,10,10,10,10

Push downs
60x10,10,10

11/7
Deadlift with 4-5 second eccentric
275x5,5,5,5.
May keep this lighter and focus on feeling it in my glutes and hamstrings instead of so much lower back.

Walking lunges. Speaking of glutes….
45x12,12,12,12

[media] [/media]

[lehman906]

11/10

Shoulder is feeling better, so I’ve been slowly working in some horizontal pressing by doing lots of easy 10 rep sets of push ups through the day. No strain, and no pain. Plus, it gets my neglected pecs some work, and apparently fit guys in button ups look good because “it makes you wonder what they look like under there.” I heard that somewhere.

Log Split jerk.
195x3x3

I have to work on trusting myself to really get under it and move both feet when the weight gets to 80% or higher.

Log strict press
135x5,5

Barbell strict press
120x6x3 sets

Trap 3 raise
10x10x5

These will help you find extra muscles in your back you never knew you had. Murder with baby weights.

Mountain Dog partial bent fly. I just call them swings.
40x25,25,18

Facepulls w/scapular retraction
80x12x4

All of the other small muscles of the back are now fried.
But I was still feeling froggy so I did some curls. Amount and volume don’t matter because they’re curls.

[media] [/media]

[lehman906]

11/17
I’ve been forgetting the conditioning part of this. One way I can be sure that I actually do it is to add in some of the old escalating density blocks. I can add jump rope to my warm up, increasing the number of jumps in 5:00 at first. That’s small enough to ensure I’ll do it, but if I do it 4 times/week, there’s 20 min of high intensity, and I can progress from there if I stick with it. The speed front squats and Deads are already on short rest, and the walking lunges can progress in a 10:00 block. I might be crazy, but I feel like I’m noticing some thigh and booty gains.

Shoulder is feeling better, and the daily push ups have less and less pain. I’m doing 70-90 in sets of ten throughout the day now, and I’ll keep slowly progressing those as well. It’s nice to just constantly use this body. I may not be a Ferrari, but I’m still a pretty good machine for being, ahem, vintage.

Log pressing is feeling good, but it’s taking a while to really be sure enough in the split technique to get under weights over 80%. It’ll come with time. It’s been so much work with 70-80%, but it’ll soon pick up. Can’t wait.

11/11
Front squats to toes w/:45 rest
155x2x8

Walking lunge
65x12x4

11/13
Log w/pause in rack and overhead
170x2x10

High Inc bench (less pain)
155x3, 140x3,3

DB floor press
40x10x5

DB rolling ext
35s x10x5

Push downs and right side pec deck

11/14
Speed Deads w/5 sec eccentric :45 rest
245x2x6

Walking Lunges
65x12x4

11/17
Jump rope-280 skips in 5:00

Log
175x1 EMOM 12:00

Strict log
145x4,3

Barbell press
135x4,4,4

Powell raise
12x15x3

Serrano Press
5x10x3

Face pulls and right side pec deck

[media] [/media]

[lehman906]

11/21
Thursday was weird. I can’t remember the last time that I forgot I was supposed to work out. Usually I start thinking about it the night before, then sporadically throughout the day, but I got home and suddenly realized I should go out to the garage to front squat and lunge. And I just had no get up and go. I was tired, it was cold and dark, and I just couldn’t get up for it. I decided not to force it. I chilled and did other things for a while, then told myself “okay, go out and do your jump rope. It’s just five minutes.” I did that, and, predictably, when I finished I thought, “I can at least do some abs” so I did some bent arm hanging leg raises. I topped off my all-day push ups to get to 100 and called it good.

11/20
Jump rope
Forgot to count my skips in 5:00

Log press. 3 cleans + 1 press. 8 sets w/2:00 rest.
190x1x8

High Inc bench
165x2
155x2x2

Push press
135x10x3

OH tri ext
Bunch

Curls and right arm pec deck for some

11/21
Jump rope
470 skips in 5:00

Beltless DO Deadlift w/5 sec eccentric and :45 rest
275x2x8

Walking lunge 10:00 block
75x39 steps

That’s a hell of a booty burn. Scorched peach.

[media] [/media]

[lehman906]

11/26
Turns out being lazy yesterday morning was fatal to my workout. I ate so much that I slept in the in-laws chair (again). In my defense, it’s warm, I ate enough for a platoon, they aren’t the most exciting people in the world, and the Lions were being the Lions. I was still too full by the time we got home, so I just bagged it.

Today I did a version of my normal squat day, playing with my new SSB. Worked up to a surprisingly heavy 300 (fuck that’s harder than a regular bar), then did my speed reps and my jump rope. Called it there because tomorrow is log again and nothing is more important than log. #thatswhatshesaid #alsowhatstimpysaid #fromBlammo

Warning: because I was trying to stay warm, it appears as if I’m playing strip log press, but I assure it stops before becoming horrifying.

11/25
Jump rope 500 skips in 5:00. Finally.

Log press: 1 clean + 2 press
Up to 210x2, probably could have gotten 220.
190x2x3

Strict Log
155x3,3

Barbell strict
140x4x3 (less than two months ago I struggled with 155x1)

Upper back stuff

11/26
Jump rope: 440 skips
SSB
300x1,
SSB to toes
150x3x8 :45 rest

[media] [/media]

[lehman906]

11/27
MICHIGAN WINS! THE EVIL EMPIRE IS DEFEATED!

Ahem. Also….
EMOMs are hard, especially while adapting to the split jerk technique. I need all the practice I can get to be able to jump underneath a heavy load, though.

Jump rope: 470 skips in 5:00
Log:
190x1x10 (10:00 EMOM)

High Inc Bench
175x1, 140x7,6

Barbell push press
140x10x3

OH tricep extensions

Yesterday I remembered to bring my barbell inside so I wouldn’t freeze my hands off today. I can’t wait to be able to move everything inside, but the yooper in me is ashamed.

Jump rope 475 skips in 5:00

Deadlift w/:05 eccentric and :45 rest. Easy.
295x2x8

Walking lunges
75 steps in 10:00

I’m going to just keep progressing BW volume on these. After doing 4 sets of 12 with 75 lbs my knees hurt for days, and I don’t know if it was from the load or from clonking them off the ground, but I can add reps and stay controlled. Respect to anyone who has to spend time on their knees. Hey-O.

Push ups and curls.
Some x play

It would make this football weekend complete if Stafford and the Rams could beat the Packers. Mostly because Rodgers is such a douchebag, and I love it when he throws tantrums, but it probably won’t happen.

Oh! I’m trying to curb my neurotic calorie tracking and picking the holiday season to do it because I am so SMRT. Goals right now are
1) To just ballpark protein in my head and try to get around 200 gms/day but not stress about it if I don’t think I did, and
2) Keep my weight under 200 without using MyFitnessPal.

Let’s see how long I can do it. Nom nom nom.

[media] [/media]

[lehman906]

12/4 (Yay!)
I think the split jerk experiment has come to an end. I stuck with it for almost three months, 2-3x/week, and it just wasn’t getting any easier. I just couldn’t make myself fully get under any weights over 80%, and my split would get smaller and smaller. I bombed out on my weights on Wed, which made me consider switching back, but I told myself I was having a low energy day with aches and pains. I decided to take Thursday off and repeat that workout today, trying my traditional push jerk. You can see how that went in the video. Everything was SO much easier. Not only the top set, but the back off sets as well, and it didn’t use as much energy or put the strain on my knees that the split seemed to do. One could argue (and arguing with myself is a specialty) that it was more from being fresh and rested, but even so. I haven’t done push jerk since Sept, and I was immediately as strong, if not stronger. I feel much better set up for the final few weeks of this program.

Also, in case they happen to be reading, happy birthday to one of my favorite people in the world. Hoping they have a fun and relaxing day full of snacks and football. BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIP TONIGHT! GO BLUE!

12/1 (beginning of video)
Log split jerk.
I squeaked out a really ugly first rep and failed the second. Then barely got the first back off, dropped weight, barely got the second, and called it off.
220x1,miss
190x2
170x2
XXX

High Inc bench
145x3x5

Strict press
145x3,3 …..and called it. I had nothing in the tank. I could have gutted out the workout, but I’d already decided to repeat it, and I was so fatigued I would have done more harm than good.


12/4
Log push jerk
220x2
200x2, 190x2,2

High Inc Bench
145x3x5

Strict press
145x3x3

Powell raises, Serrano press, and face pulls.

Felt good after this one.

[media] [/media]

[lehman906]

12/12
Workout went fine, yadda yadda yadda, but the real news is that the basement gym is almost all the way complete! Yesterday was a rather long day: drive 30 min to drop my daughter off at a swim meet, go to the fleet farm up there to haul stall mats to my car in the blowing sleet, drive 35 min to the gym, have a hard workout (get 220 again, and be loud enough that some bros clap for it), drive home, make approximately 78 trips up and down the stairs carrying heavy shit, get it mostly assembled, stop to help the fedex guy carry in the box with our new couch (they come in boxes now apparently), get almost finished, haul two old couches out to the garage (one up from the basement), assemble the new one, then put the squat rack together.

Traps were sore this morning, which really told me to take it easy on the home gym’s maiden voyage. You can check the video to see how well that worked. Oh, and the end of the video has my log presses from warm up to top set. Whatever. It’s all about the basement now. I should probably name this. Hmmm. I’m ridiculously fired up about this. Okay, I skipped breakfast to get down there and play, I should really go have some noms now.

Oh. Workouts.
12/8
Log 190x12 EMOM
Strict press and tricep stuff

12/9
Light morning Deads (no more space heater!)

12/11
Log 220x1
High Inc 145 5x5
Barbell strict 145 3x3
Upper back/rear delt stuff

[media] [/media]

[augeleven]

Welcome to the basement club!
The real question though: what’s the overhead clearance?

[lehman906]

Welcome to the basement club!
The real question though: what’s the overhead clearance?

About 8 feet.‍♂️ I can do pull ups, though, if I keep my knees bent.

I’ll still be going to the gym for all of my log pressing and other OH stuff. This will be for pulling and squatting and general thirst-trappery.