Inconsiderate people just provides opportunity elsewhere. Always look for the positive.

Today was a general back session. Nothing monumental to report. Still fine-tuning the new program, but overall things are fine.

Farmer’s walks. I’ve been doing them on the inside turf, but today I couldn’t. The gym was packed — and it wasn’t January 1st. A bunch of new faces. And there was just a lot of equipment hoarding and setup, people setting up obstacle courses and such on the turf — then leaving. There were a couple people doing some sandbag and KB runs, and they were weaving in and out of this other person’s setup. There was no way I was going to be able to do farmer’s walks.

But that’s fine. I’ve been wanting to try the outside setup — I just had to figure out logistics. And today I got to figure them out. 🙂

Inside handles are just the bars, about 20# each. The outside handles look like steel girders with upright posts for added plates; they weigh 75# each. There’s potential for longer distance outside, and there’s a slight grade to the parking lot (for drainage). It was also 45º outside this morning, so the handles were ice cold.

But no matter.

I put an extra 30# on each bar for a total of 210# to walk with. I could walk further out here, so I paced off about 40 yards. I would start at one end, get to the other as quickly as I could, set down, rest maybe 30-ish seconds, then go again. I did a total of 10 trips.

It’s still light work, but it was work. It actually felt a little easier than the runs inside. I reckon I’m starting to adapt.

I’ll probably continue doing the walks outside, because it’s fun. I like the girder-handles better too. First, the plates stay on — the inside bars have a slightly smaller diameter so the collars don’t lock firmly and the plates move and I’ve had them fall off. I’m not sure how well things will balance with 45’s on the girder bars, but we’ll eventually find out. Second, overall the girder bars just felt better in the hand. There’s more weight distributed throughout, instead of just at the ends. I can’t really describe it, it’s just a better feel. Plus, they look cool, and we know that’s the most important thing, right? 😉

I’ll probably only do them inside if I can’t do them outside (e.g. raining).

Oh yeah — the forearm pump was awesome. You MUST crush grip the whole time — you can’t just let things fall into a hooking grip. I’m going to love the results from this.

• Face Pulls
  • 65 x 25
  • 65 x 25
• Barbell Rows
  • 95 x 8
  • 115 x 8
  • 135 x 8
  • 155 x 8
  • 155 x 8
  • 155 x 8
  • 155 x 8
  • 155 x 8
• BB Shrugs (3 second eccentric)
  • 185 x 20
  • 185 x 20
  • 185 x 20
  • 185 x 15
• Cable Row (close, fat grips)
  • 155 x 12
  • 155 x 12
  • 155 x 12
• Wide, Pronated-grip Pulldowns
  • 120 x 12
  • 120 x 12
  • 120 x 11
  • 120 x 10
• Farmer’s Walk
  • outside (girder bars)
  • 105# each hand
  • 40-ish yards
  • 10 runs
  • about 30-ish seconds rest between runs