2017: It Begins

It began with a glass of my favourite scotch and a Friday night viewing of the Magnificent Seven; the 1960 original, of course (although the new one, with Denzel and Chris Pratt, is a solid movie too).


Our own magnificent seven for 2017 is this crew: the protégé Alex, Carl the Lion, Kong (whose name speaks for him), Mathew the penitent, myself, Ryan the PTC strongman vet, & the inimitable, intimidating, diminutive newcomer, Steve; possibly the strongest pound-for-pound male athlete I've had the pleasure of introducing to the sport.


Friday night I decided to commit myself to a strongman training program this year, and since Alex is beginning a new max effort clean-press routine I'm joining him, week for week and kilo for kilo. As many strongman events as we can accommodate will be conducted every Saturday from 1PM. Sessions typically run for two hours, but the more events, the more trainees, the longer the session... because this year I and several of the crew are going to compete.


When it comes to my own programming, the devil is in the details, as they say. To pull this off I'm going to need to address the issue of squatting. In short, it's counter-productive for me to squat to depth and under load with any regularity. It just fucks with my knees - more than strongman events ever have. That's a sobering reality; under a yoke I can handle a shorter ROM followed by walking with a load well over 100 kilograms more than I can squat to depth. Both have their risks.


Right now, dropping heavy squats and doing more yoke and farmers walks sounds like a better plan of action. My knees, quads and labrums will appreciate it, I reckon. And I'm pretty sure I either strained a groin or tore a larbum in my left hip while tyre flipping about a month ago... another reason why my attempts to squat through December were pained and brief. To be honest I've not trained a lot in general over the holiday season, so there's been very little to blog about. But what there is I will record here, so the old year can be done with and the new one properly begun.


December 20th, 2016
Attempted squats w/Buffalo bar. While more comfortable, I noticed while just warming up that whatever issue I thought I'd sustained while tyre flipping was still with me. I didn't want to assume the worst, but I decided the smart thing to do was quit squatting and bench instead.


Bench press:
15 kg DBs x 6
60 kg x 5
90 kg x 3
110 kg x 1
130 kg x 3 paused, solid reps
90 kg max effort touch & go: 12


HS Chest press:
45 kg p/h x 10
40 kg p/h x 10
40 kg p/h x 7


Face-pulls:
Plate 8 x 3 x 20
-super-set with-
DB front raises:
10 kg p/h x 3 x 10


*Seated DB OHP & Tri-pushdowns cxld


January 3rd, 2017
Left labrum/groin/something still an issue, though feels like it's mending so I went light and felt it out for a few sets tonight, then moved to cardio as I'm a fatass.


Squats:
80 kg x 1
60 kg x 3 x 10


Cardio:
5 minutes assault bike @ +50 rpm.


EVENTS SATURDAY January 7th, 2017


Log clean-press (strict):
45 kg x 8
60 kg x 3
72.5 kg x 18 TPR


Axle clean-press (strict):
85 kg x 1
95 kg x 1
100 kg x 1


Yoke walk:
130 kg x 40 meters
210 kg x 2 x 20 meters
250 kg x 20 meters