[niagareven]

THanks man, I'll probably order it tomorrow.

Yeah I was most impressed with my friends yoke. He has only used a yoke twice before this, and he moved really well withe 650 on it.

I was also happy because another friend of mine (competed in the 231's) came in third. He hit a big PR with 300 on the axle and went for 320 on a 4th lift but missed it. He also deadlifted 500 11 times, failed the 12th (12 was the winning number on that event) He almost loaded all 8 stones as well. If he had a litlte more time he prob could have tackied up and hit it. I've seen him do a run basically the same as in the contest, except to a higher platform and hit all 8 stones in decent time.

All in all it was an awesome day, and I cannot wait till july 7th when I can finally compete.

[niagareven]

Tuesday 6/19 - recovery

Bike - 10 minutes

2 sets of:
band pull aparts x 20
band face pulls x 20
shoulder dislocates x 20

sled dragging
backward
3 plates x 100 feet
3 plates x 100 feet
3 plates x 100 feet

forward
3 plates x 100 feet
3 plates x 200 feet
3 plates x 200 feet

-about 60 seconds between each set

stretching

beach time 8-)

[niagareven]

So my elbow hasn't bothered me since last week, then I wake up today and it's bothering me again. Not as bad as last time, but it was there. I borrowed a friend's elbow sleeve for this workout, but it didn't help that much.

Wed 6/20

I laid down about an hour and a half before the gym with an ice pack under each hamstring and I ended up falling asleep and woke up 45 minutes after I was supposed to meet my friend at the gym. d'oh

Not much of a warm up since I was in a rush to get there. Did some band stuff, but not much. Then when I got there I did some light cable face pulls and tri press downs, arm circles with a 5lbs plate and some other stuff.

Push jerks with axle out of the rack (working on speed/technique)
110 x 2 for 4 sets
130 x 2 for 4 sets
160 x 2 for 4 sets
180 x 1
200 x 1...so fast/easy
-I should have started trying to jerk instead of press a long time ago. My pressing strength is so weak and I will definitely be able to lift more once I get used to doing this.

Close grip bench - middle and pointer finger on smooth part
135 x 10
155 x 8
185 x 5
205 x 4
185 x 5
185 x 5

strict dumbbell tri extensions
30s x 10
30s x 10
30s x 8

suspended push ups (3 second pause at the bottom)
1 set of 12
1 set of 10
1 set of 10 with no pause

tri pressdowns
130 x 10
150 x 10
90 x 25

[mschatz]

Nice work. Are those split jerks you are doing, like the end of a c + j?

[niagareven]

Thanks.

My bad, they were done with an axle out of the rack. I edited my post. They were just normal push jerks, not splits.

[niagareven]

For the last few days, I keep rolling over onto my stomach when I'm sleeping and it's really bothering my back. I don't know why I keep doing it when it's not even comfortable. So because of that I got worried about my back again...

Saturday 6/23

I've been eating like crap, but my weight was 180 this morning when I weighed myself. Need to watch what Im eating so I stop being so bloated and weigh 175 in 2 weeks, which won't be a problem considering without even trying i was 178 like 4 mornings ago.

My triceps are very sore from wednesday, so I spent a good 15 minutes before leaving for the gym with my mini band doing all types of extensions I could think of. I got a pretty good pump and it seemed to help a little.

Foam roller: all 4 sides of my lower leg, hip flexors (wow that hurt..these were very tight), groin, hamstrings from 3 different angles, mid back, upper back, lats, triceps. All about 20 seconds each.

Reverse hyper
1 plate x 20 reps for 3 sets. Felt pretty decent on my back. I should have gone a bit heavier but whatever. I wasn't trying to get stronger, I was just trying to rehab my back.

12" log press (clean first rep)
empty log (95) x 10
145 x 3...very unstable
145 x 3...better
Added my work belt, which is simliar to a rehband belt for the rest of the sets.
145 x 1...ok
Added power belt on top of work belt. This made my back feel good.
175 (contest weight) x 2...probably could have had 3
175 x 1...lost my balance
175 x 3...easy
175 x 3, just missed the 4th.
-So I back tracked a bit since I haven't done this since before I hurt my back, so my new goal for the contest is 6 which shouldn't be a problem. Especially since I have 60 seconds and can reclean it if I only get 4 - 5 on the first clean.

Yoke (work belt and power belt whole time)
270 x 100 feet (may have done this twice)
450 x 50 feet...sprinted with this.
550 x 40ish feet (finished a run)
550 x 50 feet
-Contest is 500, and judging by how fast I ran with 450, I think I'll get a good time.

Medley:
180lbs sandbag carry for 50 feet, 270lbs yoke zercher carry for 50 feet, 520lbs crappy tire with very little tread x 5 flips
Two sets of this, not sure of the time but I went pretty fast.

Glute ham raises
3 sets of 6

260 stone to 54" x 1 just to see how stones felt. It felt like nothing. They didn't hurt my back but I felt it so I called it there.

-It seems like they dropped even more gravel/dirt in the alley way. There were pretty decent sized rocks and litlte hills that the yoke was hitting as we were doing it. When we were doing the tire, loads of dust was flying into our face which is always fun, especially inhaling it all.

We also measured the platform we do stones on, and it's 2 inches higher than we were told, so all the stones I've been doing have been to 50" and 54" which was a pleasant surprise. It doesn't seem like much, but when I'm only 5'5"....every inch counts

Wow, I wrote a lot this time.

[niagareven]

Monday 6/25
foam roller, blah blah
bike for 30 minutes


Tuesday 6/26
weight - 177. Thats what I like to see

Warm up

bike for 10 minutes
Foam roller, more extensive than last night.

Overhead squats
bar x 10
65 x 5
95 x 5
115 x 3
135 x 3...so easy.
-Called it there because that 135 set really aggrivated my elbow when I lowered it. Arg. I wanna go heavy on these already.

Front squats
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 1
245 x 3
245 x 2...hit the pins on the way down and almost had to dump it
245 x 3. Added my belt on this set to see how it felt. I hate hate hate squatting with a belt.
-These weren't that easy....yet again.

Dimel deads
225 x 10
295 x 10
315 x 10
315 x 10
315 x 10

decline sit ups (hook 1 leg at a time)
10 x right side, 10 x left side
10 x right side, 10 x left side
-Stopped a few inches from the bench on the way down and tensed my abs hard because going all the way down and just lifting myself up bothered my back last week.

Standing ab pull downs
3 sets of 15
-I don't think these are going to do much for me because I have to keep it so light or else I get thrown backwards because I'm so light.

[mschatz]

Holy volume, your workouts take up the whole page!

[niagareven]

I guess I do kind of do a lot of volume. I never realized that.

Wednesday 6/27

warm up: bike for 10 minutes, foam roller, band pull aparts, face pulls, shoulder dislocates, push ups

Push jerks with axle out of the rack (working on speed/technique)
110 x 2 for 4 sets
130 x 2 for 4 sets
160 x 2 for 2 sets - elbow started feeling not so great like it has been here
180 x 1 - ouch
200 x 1 - really ouch

and then my elbow REALLY started bothering me. Bad. I tried to do close grip but not only was that ad umb idea, but I was only able to do 135 for 1 before I felt like it was gonna fall.

I couldn't even steer my car with my left arm on the way home.

My back is pretty much 100% other than being stiff in the mornings and stuff, but I'm working on that. So figures now a week and a half out of my other first contest (which should be my second) I do something to my elbow. I guess I'm taking the rest of the time off till next saturday and hopefully it'll be fine. This really sucks though because I really wanted to get 1 more day in with the log and yoke. Unbelievable.

I got the cissus stuff in the mail like 5 days ago, but I've only taken it once. I completely forgot about it, but I'm gonna be taking 1/2 tsp twice a day for now on. I hope this is just a bad case of tendonitis and I didn't do something serious...

[niagareven]

So the pain went from my elbow all the way up to my shoulder. It got so bad shortly after I wrote this that I couldn't move it at all without it throbbing in pain. Then within an hour, the pain was almost completely gone. I really don't understand it. This is the same thing that happens, but never to this extent. I can always deal with it and work through it, but I couldn't this time. Then it just seems like the pain disappears at the snap of a finger. I don't get it.

I may still workout saturday. Thinking back to last week, nothign I did caused pain so we'll see.

Then I was in a bad mood because I wasn't having too great of a day, and since I have been doing good with eating I figured I'd have a cheat "meal." It consisted of: the two cheeseburger and fries meal from mcdonalds along with a 20 piece nugget, a bottle of mountain dew, 2 cherry poptarts, and an 2 sleeves of oreos (30 total) with milk. I feel awesome now.