upperbody

Well today I was gonna start what I would call phase 1 of my training for a competition. But I really think that right now I am gonna have to wait on competing, at least in strongman. Chuck helped me figure out my knee and we are pretty sure it is cartlidge damage, which is pretty much what I thought it was as I have degenerative cartilidge or whatever the hell it is called in my knees. I had to have the cartlidge removed in my left knee a couple years ago and I am sure this one needs it to. But it is just gonna have to wait. So I am gonna listen to Chuck and start rehabbing it and try not to do anything stupid, this will be hard to do....

Strict presses 95 x 5 135 x 3 155 x 1 175 x 1 195 x 1 Just to gauge where I am at. Tried to do push presses and this is when I found out my knee is definately not ready, when I dipped down to get leg drive I damn near fell to the ground from the pain.

down sets 175 x 3 155 x 5 135 x 10 So I guess I will be doing alot of strict presses, and one motion presses with the log. NO LEG DRIVE!

Close grip bench 135 x 5 185 x 5 225 x 5 275 x 3 add slingshot 295 x 3 315 x 3 was gonna go heavier but Chuck and Mac were throwing and I didn't have a spotter.

Dips bodyweight x 5 + 35 x 5 x 5

Green band extensions 5 x 15

 Pullups 8 x 5

Grippers # 1 3 x 5 each hand
Trainer 3 x 15 each
Grip machine x alot

 I was in a rather dismall mood after not being able to push press, but eventually I said "Fuck it, guess I will just have to get really good at strict pressing." Not much I can do and maybe the rest on the old body will be nice.

Jesse

Putting things in perspective

So I have been going through some of my old training logs figuring some stuff out. I think I have figured out what I need to change and start doing. Also no matter what I need to start doing some damn cardio, whether my knee is hurting or not I gotta get it done. I am not near as lean as I used to be and this needs to be addressed. Also I think I might have found a contest I am considering doing. I like the events and it is out of town so it would put me in a area I have never been to. First thing I gotta do is get my knee healthy, and I gotta start getting myself healthy. So hopefully I can be smart and get things healed, granted this is a big might. And I really gotta work on getting leaner and in better shape. Here is to hoping. Jesse

I have to ramble.......

I have been in a funk the past couple of weeks. I started my goal of losing weight, which automatically puts me in a somewhat shitty mood half the time. Then I fucked up my knee, which really puts me in a shitty mood. And now I am really wondering what the fuck I should really do. I am down to 230-231 and feel really good, part of me thinks I should just stay where I am at and really work on getting strong as hell at this weight. The other part of me says "Stick to your goal and keep losing". Then there could be a reality of my knee is fucked and I will be on the sidelines from competing for a little while. I don't know what to do, I know I need to do whatever makes me happy, but unfortunately I don't know what is gonna make me happy right now. I am sure some people will read this and not understand what is going on, some will read it and think I am stupid, others will exactly what I am going through. The other conundrum I have been having is trying to decide what sport I want to concentrate on the most. I love strongman and I love highland games, but I find it is rather hard to concentrate on both. At least for me it is, I am not a natural athlete and in order to be good at something I have to really concentrate on it. I have been very competitive at the 200# class, but I have my weaknesses also in that class. My overhead for the most part has always been complete crap when I am this light. When I get back up to 231 my overhead has been at least decent with a personal best in competition of 270lbs on the axle. But I also have my strengths. One thing I know is if I do get back down to the 200's I want to be very close to 200 and not have to cut much weight. Cutting weight sucks and is not fun at all. Who knows what I am gonna do, my mind is always going in different directions. I really hate to be one of those people that makes a decision and then changes their mind. It seems that is what I am doing, if only all lifes decisions could be easy....... Jesse

Strongman day

Not a bad day today, I think I overdid it on my knee, but I don't know any better and knee pain never typically stops me. It probably should but chicks dig a guy who walks with a limp....maybe. Log press 155 x 3 180 x 3 200 x 3 one motion pressing 180 x 5 x 3 sets Well anything that involves me using leg drive really hurts, these were sloppy and didn't look easy at all. I am probably gonna have to stick with strict presses for a while. Super yoke 3 sets of 60 feet was gonna do 4 but I tweaked my knee on the 3rd set. Nothing heavy and not really fast. Farmers walks 2 sets with 210 each hand x 120 feet both felt good and turning wasn't as bad as I thought it would have been. Stones 230 x 3 x 2 sets both one motion sets, very easy. I have set a goal of one motioning the 310 stone so I am working on the technique for this. 330 x 1 Curls 6 sets shoulders 6 sets Overall decent day, I am gonna have to ice the hell out of my knee but you can't beat having some good training. Jesse

CRAP WORKOUT!

Wow what a shitty workout, I don't know why it was but hey that is the breaks.

Power snatch
Not even worth mentioning

Box squats
5 sets of crap doubles

Hip snatches
slow

situps
5-6 sets

Not sure what the hell what was up with today, but I guess I just gotta take what was given to me today.

Jesse

Upperbody day

Today was a deload day for close grip bench plus I only had 30 minutes to get a workout in as I had parent teacher conferences for my daughter. I had a great workout though and my bodyweight is down to 231.4, down 16 lbs so far. I really feel good, recovery on my workouts is better, I sleep better, and my body in general feels better. Looking forward to a cheat meal on saturday.

Close grip bench
135 x 5
185 x 5
195 x 5
205 x 5
215 x 5
225 x 5

Dips
3 x 10

I did 10 sets of 3 on pullups also

Tricep pressdown supersetted with fatman pullupss
10 and 5 x 5 sets

Grip work

Nice workout, things are going well and I think I am on a great pace for my goal at the end of april.

Jesse

Deadlift day

I wasn't really sure how today's workout was gonna go, I stayed up late helping my mother and didn't sleep much and overall I just felt way too tired. Gotta love having a decent workout when you can barely even keep your eyes open.

Power Cleans
225 x 2 x 5 sets

Deadlifts
225 x 5
315 x 5
365 x 5
425 x 10 nice and easy.

Very happy my deadlift stays strong while I am cutting. Plus I am starting my cycle nice and light to help get back in shape and hopefully get some things healed up.

106# KB rows supersetted with blast strap rows
8 and 10 x 3 sets

Renegade rows
3 x 5

Not a bad day, gotta start upping the little amount of cardio I have been doing.

Jesse

Sunday workout

Decided to not do any moving events today, gonna be smart and let this knee heal up. I don't do this very often so hopefully it will work.

Strict press
95 x 5
115 x 5
135 x 5
155 x 5
175 x 5
155 x 5
135 x 5
115 x 10
95 x 10

Figured might as well get a lot of volume in.

Triset
front raise, side raise, bent over raise x 10 x 3 sets

Superset
EZ bar curls and hammer curls 10 x 3 sets

Stones
230 x 5
270 x 5
310 x 1

16# sledgehammer
4 x 10 each arm

Got my weight down to 233 and had a higher carb day yesterday which brought me up to 238. I will probably be back down to 233 tommorrow based off how my body reacts in the past.

Jesse

Lower Body day

Ok workout today, my knee is still bothering me so I did what I can without bothering it.

WOB with 42#
multiple throws at 13' all had plenty of height and quite a few went over.

Power snatches
95 x 2
115 x 2
135 x 2
145 x 2 x 5 sets

Box squats(tried doing back squats knee couldn't take it.)
230 x 2 x 8 sets

DB slds
3 x 10

russian twists
3 x 10

Overall decent day, weight keeps coming off and I am feeling better.

Jesse

Upperbody day

Today was a great workout, not based off the weights I used but just off how I felt. So far I am down 10lbs and my strength is feeling it, but I am feeling so much better.

Close grip bench
135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 5
255 x 3
285 x 2

Dips
3 x 10

Tate Presses
3 x 10

Band extensions
3 x 15

2.5" thick bar wrist curls supersetted with COC grippers
10 and 5 on reps.

Overall decent workout, the weight is coming off nicely. Strength will come back eventually.

Jesse

Whats on the agenda......

So I am taking a total on my earlier goals from this year. I am gonna work on getting down to 195lbs. Now unfornately I lose strength when I lose weight, and I lose it fast. But it does come back once I get settled. Why am I doing this, well it sounds hard, and I want a different goal than just lifting heavy stuff. My main goal for doing this is to compete at the MacPherson games in the 190 and under division, cutting 5lbs will not be hard. My lifts right now are absolute crap, well except my deadlift it is still holding up ok.

I won't lie, I hate dieting, but I like to have goals and this seems like a good enough goal. Now one thing that is gonna drive me nuts is not competing until September, but that is the breaks. I am not done with strongman, but I just don't know when I plan on actually competing in it again.

So far I have dropped about 8 lbs in 10 days, I hope to be down around 200lbs by the end of july, this way I will have 4-6 weeks to concentrate on getting my strength back and letting everything settle.

Here goes nothing.

Jesse

Deadlift and upperback day

Today was just a day of absolute vaginism, I had a bad case. Hopefully it will be cured soon. On a good note my diet is at least going well.

Power cleans
top sets
205 x 5 x 2 sets

Deficit deads
225 x 3
315 x 3
365 x 3
405 x 3
From floor
405 x 5
425 x 1

Deads felt shitty

Bent over rows
5 x 10

Blast strap rows
5 x 10

abs
6 sets

The next couple of months are going to have lots of ups and downs with my strength, but that is the game I play. I don't think I will probably compete until July at the earliest, but more than likely september.

Jesse

Sunday training

So I have made an honest decision to lose weight AGAIN! Yeah I know why do I constantly lose weight, then gain weight to do something else, biggest reason I can tell you, I just like to punish myself. So I am gonna be losing strength, but I really wanna make this a life decision this time. There is a lot more to life than lifting weights and being strong. And when I can't even play soccer with my daughter without my knees wanting to break apart that is a problem. So I have started cleaning up my diet and will do more cardio this week. Probably gonna have more changes put into my workouts this week.

Deload on overhead today.
log press
140 x 3
160 x 3
180 x 3
200 x 1

Cambered squat bar strict presses
3 x 10
2 x 5

Farmers walks
4 sets for speed with 210 lbs each hand x 80 feet each

Hammer curls supersetted with Blast strap pulls to the face
3 x 10 each

Prowler from hell(Bryan's own homemade one, it sucks bigtime.)
I think I did 8 runs of 50 feet and wanted to die.

Gonna do some cardio and conditioning tommorrow.

Jesse

Deadlift and upperback day

So I was gonna start my deadlift cycle back up today, but really I wasn't in the mood to pull reps and I am not really training for anything right now. So I think it is the perfect time to change things up and try something new.

Tried to do some cleans but my wrist is too fucked up to do any. Will probably be switching to just high pulls.

Reverse band deadlifts Greens
235 x 3
325 x 3
415 x 3
505 x 2
555 x 2
605 x 1 PR
These were a nice change of pace, I haven't done them in years. I think I am gonna rotate between these, deficit pulls, rack pulls, and Snatch grip deads.

DB rows
3 x 8

Blast strap rows
3 x 10

Nice and easy day, I got some new ideas I wanna try in my training and hope to start implementing them.

Jesse

Quick workout

Decided I need to cut back on some of my workouts, mondays are more gonna be a active recovery day. I will do cleans tommorrow before I deadlift.

KB snatches
35 x 5
53 x 5
70 x 5 x 3 sets
These are feeling a lot better, I gotta try some WOB this week and see if they are doing any good.

Sledgehammer 16#
5 sets of 10 each arm.

Jesse

Sunday's workout.

What a day, but a good one in the end. Unfornately my overhead pressing is in the shitter right now, not sure why. It is a good thing I had a good workout after my pressing as I was starting to worry if maybe I just don't have what it takes anymore to compete. So I am just gonna realize that my pressing right now is for some reason on vacation, hopefully it will be done with it hiatus soon.



Axle clean and press

160 x 3

200 x 3

220 x 3

245 x 2 and a very ugly hard 2.



Press medley

We will just say I sucked balls on this, only good description for it.



Strict Presses with cambered bar

120 x 5

170 x 3

190 x 2

200 x miss



Farmers Walks

260 each hand x 80 feet

300 each hand x 80 feet Huge PR for distance and no dropping

300 each hand x 65-70 feet felt good to get this for another set without dropping.

Doing this made me feel alot better about my training. Being able to 300 each hand when I haven't been training farmers is great. Seems like everytime I have set PRs on farmers is when I haven't trained them, so I should probably stay the course on this theory.



Backwards Sled drags

450lbs x 5 sets of 50 feet

This was Troy's idea, and I wanted to puke after it, but I didn't. Gotta start doing these again, great exercise and good for conditioning. My quads were so pumped it was unreal, I laid down for a good 15 min.



Front raises supersetted with Band Pullaparts
10 and 15 x 3 sets

Jesse

Upperbody workout

Wow, I felt like a truck hit me today. I honestly considered just completely skipping this workout, but then I realized that would be a complete pussy move so I considered agains't it.

Close grip bench
135 x alot
185 x 5
225 x 5
255 x 9
Not a bad start

Tried to do some light push jerks but my elbows and shoulders were way too tight and hurt.

Pullups x 5 then a set of Cheat curls x 5 x 5 sets

Medicine ball tosses over 9 foot bar
35 x 5 x 2 sets
50 x 5

Not the most amount of work but it got the job done.

Jesse

Deadlift day

Didn't really have much of a plan for today, I just wanted to work up to something heavy and go from there.

Snatch Grip High pulls
5 sets of 3 supersetted with some band exercise Chuck taught me.

Deadlifts
245 x 3
335 x 3
425 x 3
485 x 3
545 x 1 about perfect.

Snatch Grip Deadlift
335 x 5 x 3 sets

Bent over rows
245 x 5 x 3 sets

Medicine ball oblique toss
3 sets of 10

We messed around with the new sheaf before the workout, definately gotta get the holes bigger as it likes to stick. That and I need to polish the tines on my fork. All in due time. Hopefully if the weather is decent tommorrow, I can go throw.

Jesse