Template 1, Week 11: More Good News

A familiar face showed up during events training Saturday. Kelvin Hall is another multi-disciplined strength athlete who dabbles in Strongman, and also remembers a time when competitors in the lighter weight categories were few. Before all the Crossfit virtuosos got amongst it, packing the under 80 and under 90 kilo divisions with talent.
Since he was going to be at Legendary Lifting on a regular basis in the future, I asked him if he'd be able to instruct me in the aspects of Olympic lifting that carry over to Strongman - chiefly, push-press. While I can strict press 120 kilograms for reps, I need to be able to clean-press that and more, comfortably. And some Olympic finesse has long been missing from my repertoire. Happily, he agreed.
A bunch of good things happened this week. To start, this week I reached parity with the exercises I have been loading differently from left to right. While my right arm is not yet as strong as it needs to be, it's almost there. I did notice my right's grip strength struggling a little during the second set of axle clean-press, but other than that, the only big difference is aesthetic. It's still smaller than the left one.
While Kelvin isn't competing this year, he is coaching four athletes who are entering the next WASM qualifier in early August. Which brings me to my next piece of good news: August isn't my last opportunity to qualify for the state finals! WA Strongman is holding another round sometime in September / October, which suits me down to the ground. I'll be primed by then.
My lower back was so wrecked from Thursday that I wasn't willing to try my money sets on yoke during events. My first properly punishing pull session since the injury was a good one, but it also reminded me how much further I have yet to go.
For convenience as much as anything else, I loaded the farmers picks ten kilos heavier than programmed. Like last week, I did the runs in two sets of four, which was not as challenging to my grip as I was expecting... but it did show up my cardio. My heart rate reached more than 170 beats per minute after each set of four runs.

Since I wasn't able to do the yoke and I also didn't do a dedicated press session this week, I added the second half of my Press+ template 1 to my events session, and did some slightly higher-intensity cardio than usual to finish.

Then, after I'd gone home to shower and change, I drove out to Midland for a tub of ice cream from my favourite ice creamery.

EVENTS+ week 11 Template 1 - Saturday July 6th

Kelvin Hall

Axle clean-press:

50 kg x 5

70 kg x 4

80 kg x 1

90 kg x 2 x 4

Yoke walk:

130 kg x 15 meters
210 kg x 15 meters
250 kg x 15 meters

290 kg x 15 meters

Farmers walk (p/h):

75 kg x 2 x 4 x 15 meters
Triceps pushdowns w/rope:
72 kg x 3 x 15
DB curls (l&r): - parity
15 kg x 3 x 10
DB front raises (p/h): - parity
10 kg x 3 x 10
Cardio - assault bike:
60 sec @ 55-60 rpm
60 sec @ 45-50 rpm
20 sec @ max effort 95-100 rpm
100 sec @ 45-50 rpm
60 sec @ 55-60 rpm

PULL week 11 Template 1 - Thursday July 4th
Deadlifts:
70 kg x 10
100 kg x 5
130 kg x 5
160 kg x 3 x 10
Leg extensions (p/l):
20 kg x 3 x 15
Meadows rows (l&r): - parity
42.5 kg x 3 x 10
Seated rows (neutral):
left 75 kg x 3 x 10
right 52.5 kg x 3 x 10
Face-pulls:
49.5 kg x 3 x 20
DB side raises (p/h): - parity
10 kg x 3 x 10
Cardio - assault bike:
5 mins @ 50 rpm

I actually burned over 6600 calories Saturday July 6th. That's a record for a non-competition day, I think.