It started with the sandbag carries to work on my back. Then I started shouldering them as well. Then I played around with the log a little. It kind of snowballed from there and I got carried away.Renascent wrote: ↑Fri Dec 16, 2022 10:43 amWas the strongman work mean to supplement powerlifting training, or just a separate aim altogether?MarkKO wrote: ↑Fri Dec 16, 2022 10:24 amThe beating up I could deal with I think, if it was all I did.Hardartery wrote: ↑Fri Dec 16, 2022 6:36 amStrongman is definitely harder on the system than PL. PL can beat you up in specific ways for sure, but Strongman does not limit itself to narrow confines it seeks out new and different avenues to beat you up. It is fun, and doing a contest should really just be a bit of fun for most people. No one is getting to any serious level of professional success at it without a lot of drugs and dedication. I laugh out loud whenever I see PLers talk about "Retiring" from PL and moving to Strongman, as if it will be easier on them somehow.MarkKO wrote: ↑Thu Dec 15, 2022 11:57 pm Ok, so a few things.
First up, a return to reason and a cessation of trying to ride two horses with one backside. I'm not going to entertain the idea doing strongman and powerlifting. I'll just end up doing both badly, and I'm not that good a powerlifter that I can afford to do anything to torpedo my performance. I actually suspect that some of the flatness and lack of focus I've been struggling with were simply un-uttered concerns about this.
Second, sandbags are out. Not because they're not doing what I want (they are) but they are frying my biceps too and that's starting to be a problem because it's getting into my elbows. Between the SSB, spider bar and pulling against bands I think my weakness in the back is addressed well enough.
Third, I suspect that the knee issue I've been having is probably linked to the strongman work. I first noticed achy knees after the first time I pressed the axle and DB, and it hasn't really gone away since. Something about the leg drive seems to irritate my knees. So, nixing the strongman work should have a decent chance of eliminating the knee pain. The week off over Christmas should speed this up.
Clean and press away I'm going to keep, but as an assistance exercise because my shoulders do seem happier with overhead work being included. I'll just press strict exclusively.
Friday close grip incline bench with fat bar
5x190 lbs
4x10x145 lbs, so everything goes up by five pounds next week
10, 6, 6, 5 pullups
2x8, 1x9x134 lbs fat bar clean and press way (strict, because knees)
3x10x132 lbs T-bar rows
10x80 lbs, 8x60 lbs, 12x40 lbs, 22x20 lbs tricep pushdowns with failure on rep 23
3x35 facepulls
This was the best session I've had in a while. Funny, that.
But I've put a fair bit of effort into PL and have a ways to go to achieve what I want. I'm not prepared to risk that to try some shiny new toy.
I'm not good at focusing on more than one or two things at once. There's so much I would need to learn and work on for strongman that PL would have to go out the window and that was never something I was going to be prepared to do.
The one thing I think I'll bring back will be sandbag to shoulder and possibly even the carries in the period after meets where I focus on building work capacity, but they'll be limited to that period.
I always knew it wasn't a great idea, but for some reason thought it was worth a shot to see if I could make it work. It lasted what, a month?