April 11, 2022

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I was traveling and missed posting here for a bit. Filming Saltwater Experience does not allow me to do the type of workouts that I do when I am home, but I try to make sure to get something in everyday.

For a year and a half, I have been using Joe Hippensteel program, Ultimate Human Performance to try ot regain mobility in my calves…at least that is the way it started. I have achieved flexibility that I have NEVER had in some areas. Others, well, Im still working on it. My calves gave me significant and continuous trouble when it came to running. Despite being able to run a 3:13:00 marathon at one time, I found myself having trouble running 1/2 mile without injuring my calf. When it happened, there was no warning and the torn soleus muscle would make it difficult to walk for a few days and running was out of the question. I became gun shy and took almost 2 years off running so that I would be able to continue to do everything else.

Now, after significant work on my calves and the rest of my body, I am easing back into running and have run the last 6 days in a row. I am going to go slowly and hopefully Ill be able to run distance again.

I did a deck of cards with a short run for Jokers most days but also showed my friend the EMOM style where we picked 4 exercises and chose a time frame to complete. I usually use 2 cardio and 2 strength. A sample day looked like this

Run - 40 seconds

30 pushups

Moutnain climbers - 40 seconds

Handstand walk -30 seconds

This was good and my friend liked the format as well.

Today was the first day back in the garage and we were straight back to HWPO Mat Frasers program.

April 1, 2022

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No April fools jokes this morning. Missed opportunity.

We had a good bike/run workout. HWPO has brought in swimming to the workout and we don’t have a place right now. We will incorporate it into the workout in the summer.

We substituted the swim for a 1 mile run on Minnekahda. Josh ran 5:50 and has the 5:37 record in his sights. Our mile run is on a big and steep hill so times are not accurate to what he could run a mile on flat track. It is slow going up but fast going down.

I was very happy to get back to the running today and felt fine. No strains or injuries. Of course a mile is not very far but my calf has presented problems on even a 400 m run. I think that the stretching has me where I can run again. I hope so because I do miss running.

Im headed out of town and the guys will continue while Im gone. I will incorporate more running into the workouts while Im gone and see if I can get some miles.

Also I missed yesterdays post so here is what we did yesterday. Power clean + Jerk. 5x 2+2 @150 lbs

My burpees were 15, 16, 16, 15, 16.

March 28, 2022

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A great weekend with the workout crew in Venice, LA. It was the first, but not the last RRL fishing trip. While there we caught plenty of fish and had a great workout at Fort Jackson on the Mississippi River.

Back in the garage:

Today:


March 24, 2022

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Great day at the RRL with more muscle ups than we have seen from our group in a while

Josh, Jose, Lucas, Card, Rusty, Alan, Michael, Steen

Started with Squat Snatch - I felt rusty and immobile today. 135 was challenging. Mobility in my left shoulder was not as good as it can be and also my mid back. Seems like the stretching should be helping but I seemed tight.

Then a strange workout from Fraser -

5 Muscle ups

10 shoulder to overhead w 135

15 cal on bike

x 3 rounds but rest 1 min after first round, 2 min after second round and 3 min after 3rd and then repeat the workout again with the same rest times

My first try was better than my second try even though all the movements felt a little better on the 2nd…just slower.

Today is the day we leave for the 1st annual RRL fishing trip. Headed to Louisiana for many guys first experience at something like this. It should be fun. 9 of us going including my dad. I have prizes for most, biggest, most sunburned and most likely to return

March 23, 2022

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At 4:45 the rain woke me up. I usually get out of bed at 5:02 but I just got up this morning. I could use some extra stretching and probably a few minutes to see how we might customize today’s workout into something we can do in the rain.

It started with a good 20 min stretch and when I felt like I was ready, I moved to the first movement of the day. Clean and Jerk 5x3x2 @ 155

On round 3 I was pretty sure that today would be the day that the streak was broken. I started this garage gym in 2008 or 9, I cant remember. But ever since the first day, at least one person has come to workout with me. I have never been completely stood up. After the 3rd clean and jerk this morning I was pretty sure that today was the day, but I saw headlights and then Justin Arnold rounded the corner!

Justin hit his clean and jerks and I finished mine and then we moved to the next round of the workout which worked perfectly for only 2 of us in the rain.

10 Bench Press

10 Sandball Shoulder @ 120lbs

5 Bench Press

5 Sandball shoulder @ 120

Hit this every 5 minutes x 3 rounds

then

Bike

25 cal

Rest :30

10 cal

rest :30

10 cal

rest :30

10 cal

rest 2:00

do this x3

Great start to the day. Thank you Justin for saving me this morning!

March 21, 2022

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Good group today. Robert, Kim, Card, Will Ensign, Jose, Gage, Josh, Rusty, Alan, Me

Front Squat, Back Squat, Snatch/Row emom followed by bar Muscle up/Devil press and then a 16 min core emom

I read the book Salt Fix yesterday and tried some things I learned. Instead of the 20 gr of carbs coming from Apple juice mixed w 10 gr protein powder I exchanged the apple juice for tailwind that has 330 gr sodium in it. I added a little salt on top of it. Mixed the protein powder in it and did not take Beta Alanine this morning. I felt pretty good and managed 6 bar muscle ups in a row. Maybe I felt a little stronger? I will see if the afternoon nap hits as hard today and I am also going to watch my calves to see if they are twitching as much.

I did not sweat that much this morning. Certainly not like the summer time but I will sauna this afternoon.

Hopefully I can get the balance right.

March 18, 2022

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Finished the week with Deadlifts and a 40 min EMOM

Deads

The EMOM was good. Had a good group: Lucas, Jody, Josh, Jose, Steen, Will Ensign, Card, Rusty, Mathew, Me, Alan.

The Squat Clean Dumbbell was supposed to be at 95. We don’t have a 95 lb db and Im not sure anyone can even do that. We do have a 75 and I managed to work my way up to that for a few rounds. Lucas did too with surprisingly good form. Looked really good. Mine probably didnt look very good

After the workout and to celebrate Moose’s return we went into the basement and had a Black Rifle Coffee Party. Good times

March 17, 2022

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Another awesome morning.

Yesterday was a rainy day that coincided with a day of biking on the HWPO program. It worked out well as we were able to all stay inside and get the work done. It was about a 10 minute warm up of intervals on the bike followed by a 30 minute interval based upon our 20 min max ride. We went 1:00 at 100% of that max, 2:00 at 80% and 2:00 at 60% followed by :30 rest x 5

Today:


March 15, 2022

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Great morning! Im missing my dog Moose as he is still at manners camp. We did have June and Ellie here today though. Great group with Josh, Steen, Rusty, Alan, Mathew, Me.

Morning weigh in at 184.6 down from 191. The tracking of the macros is working and I feel good.

Great stretching session last night before bed and I felt good this morning in the warm up stretch.

We got all this work done before 7 am


March 14, 2022

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Trip to Montana, Trip to Auburn. Time away from this blog but no time away from training.

I also started a new plan to get down to fighting weight. I weighed in at 187 and have been as high as 191. I want to get down to 174.

While I like RP Strength and have had good success with it, I have also tried it many times and fallen off. I think it is too much tracking for me. I decided to try my friend Layne Norton’s app, Carbon. It is easy, provides Zone macro goals and allows bar code scanning. So far, I have remained in calorie deficit but hitting protein requirements. I am predicted to lose 1.5 pounds per week. Hopefully that will continue to work and Ill hit my goal


February 22, 2022

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Great day in the garage this morning. Strangely, it rarely rains between the hours of 4:30-7:30. Heavy rain hit last night and rained through the night but by 4:30 it broke and we were able to get the whole workout in rain free. It is strange how often this happens. It started raining as I was finishing at 7:30.

Romanian DL at 185

Snatch balance at 95, 115, 95

Metcon 2 at 185 dropping to 135 to try to get more T2B

No extra work today besides push/pull sled and stretching

Making significant progress on the sit cross leg head on floor which feel fantastic and strangely seems to have opened my hamstrings a bit.

Rusty, Justin, Mathew, Josh, Jose, Steen, Jody, Me, Matt Lawson + Ellie, June and Moose

February 15, 2022

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Training feels good right now but I am not sure how my performance would be if I were to test it. I have not competed in a while and with Fraser’s HWPO program there is really not a way to keep track of everything or a leaderboard to compete on each workout. I really like the programming but I do miss the leaderboard from Bergerons program.

I have been staying relatively light on most weights and I do feel good and injury free. Id like to test some workouts and probably will with some open workouts even though I am not competing in the Open this year. Ill do some of the workouts as a test to see where I am.

Hit the strict press at 135, 145, 155. Snatch and squat snatch was 95 and felt smooth. Could have done 115 pretty easily I think. Knee work is paying off

Today:

Good group this morning…Josh, Jose, Justin, Jimmy, Rusty, Card, Alan, Me

February 14, 2022

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Felt great to be back in the Garage this morning!

Robert, Kim, Alan, Rusty, Josh, Jose, Matt Lawson and JODY all back with me.

Starting to ramp up the weight again. Feeling good. I based my 1RM dead off 315 which is light but just being careful and laying down a good base. Snatch Balance was at 115 and Metcon was at 115 as well. I was moving well with the 115 squat snatches today. Knee work is definitely helping.

Finished the day with 4x push/pull on the sled with 6 plates.