2 Week Catchup: More Conditioning Needed

Squats last Tuesday were a disappointment, as my squats sometimes are. The first set I performed with no knee sleeves or belt and they felt pretty comfortable. I put the sleeves on for set two but remained belt-less as the weight really didn't justify sacrificing breathing comfort. Coming up from the seventh rep, I went light headed, lost my vision briefly, and my legs began to shake; all indicators I was about to pass out, so I hurriedly racked the bar and waited till I felt steady on my feet again before continuing with the routine.


At this time, I had not had any dry needling to my traps in several months, and there is a definite relationship between the blood flow to my brain and having loose, unknotted trap muscles. I got both traps and quads needled later in the week.


On Saturday, I tried to keep up with the Legendary Lifting Arnolds crew and wound up with a bruised diaphragm. If you take a look at the stuff I was doing with the yoke, harness and prowler, you'd understand why. I'd not been doing anything like it prior, and was not sufficiently conditioned. At all.


When you bruise the wall of muscle that is your diaphragm, the worst thing you can do is lie down. That's what I did the first time it happened, several years ago. I had decided to do some reasonably heavy sets of leg press after an even heavier deadlift session. Everything went fine till I was finishing up, when I felt a pain in my chest as I pulled myself out of the 45 degree leg press machine. The inside of my chest felt tender and sore, and hurt to breathe a little. This condition worsened later that evening. I attempted to get out of bed and was unable to sit upright without intense pain through my chest. I basically had to roll on to my side, hang my legs over the edge of the bed and swing myself upright, so I could stand and go take a piss.


This time I was better prepared. I remained seated or standing that evening and did regular tensing exercises (think Kegels but for your abdomen) up till bed time, and felt 100% again by Sunday evening. This is not the reason I didn't make it back in to train till the following weekend, but because of this latency I used the Saturday to hit money sets on both deadlift and incline press. I was pleased I completed all required reps - something I was a little worried about since my last press session. This success means I'll be continuing with the incline program as written.


Navarre, Jacqui and Anthony were again hitting their Arnolds prep hard that Saturday. In the two-plus years I've known Jacqui, her strengths and abilities have increased at a remarkable rate. She was beaming with pride as she told me of the six reps of a 105 kilogram atlas stone she'd lifted and placed to 1.4 meters that day. When she began training Strongman with me in early 2018 (or maybe late '17), she could manage only two reps of a 65 kilogram stone. That's one hell of an improvement.


Shit, I haven't even attempted a properly heavy stone since before my first bicep tendon detachment. Going to have to remedy that.


EVENTS Saturday February 29th
Deadlifts w/barbell:
65 kg x 10
105 kg x 5
145 kg x 3
185 kg x 1
215 kg x 3 x 7 PR for total reps at this weight
Incline barbell press:
20 kg x 5
55 kg x 5
75 kg x 3
95 kg x 1
105 kg x 3 x 5 TPR
Axle squats (de-load):
20 kg x 10
60 kg x 10
100 kg x 10
Cardio:
assault bike 5 mins @ +50 rpm


EVENTS Saturday February 22nd
Yoke walk:
130 kg x 2 x 15 meters
190 kg x 2 x 15 meters
230 kg x 2 x 15 meters
+ Truck pull harness attached to prowler:
250 kg + 65 kg x 2 x 15 meters
1 arm DB curls (right only):
12.5 kg x 15, 10, 5
Cardio:
assault bike 5 mins @ +50 rpm


SQUAT+ Tuesday February 18th
Axle squats:
20 kg x 10
60 kg x 5
100 kg x 3
120 kg x 2
140 kg x 1
150 kg x 9, 7 FAIL
Leg extensions (p/l):
20 kg x 15, 15, 10
Hamstring curls (p/l):
15 kg x 3 x 15
DB side raises (p/h):
12.5 kg x 4 x 10
Cardio:
assault bike 5 mins @ +50 rpm