January 19, 2026 – Week 21, Day 1

Paused Axle Push Presses (2 seconds lockout)
30x5
60x3
90x2
120x2
150x2
180x4
180x4
180x4
180x4

Neutral Grip Incline Dumbbell Bench Presses
56’sx12
87’sx7
87’sx7
87’sx7

Overhead Dicks Presses
65x4
95x2
125x4
125x4
125x4
125x4

Deadstop Single Arm Dumbbell Rows/Heels Elevated Goblet Squats (4-0-4-0 tempo)
62x8/8 – bwx4
112x4/4 – bw+40x4
162x8/8 – bw+80x8
162x8/8 – bw+80x8
162x8/8 – bw+80x8

Reverse Lunges w/ March Hold (2 seconds)
bwx3/3
bw+40’sx10/10
bw+40’sx10/10

Stretching

Comments: With Saturday sessions in this contest prep taking time and certainly having me feel joint stiffness that makes it hard to fall asleep early (and stay asleep) I think knowing that Monday would be a federal holiday and give me an extra day to kind of recover and get things together was helpful. I think it mentally helped knowing that if Saturday had been a digging deep session into the reserves that I’d have the opportunity to get as much rest as I was going to with it still being a work week. It snowed Sunday morning which as I mentioned had not been expected and would’ve made training that day not great so it was good I had stuck to Saturday despite the driving conditions. Sunshine melted most of it in the front yard so I had to do some shoveling in the back patio so that I could train out there Monday and not be lifting on ice. I made sure I got a walk it and it was cold enough that I actually had to wear my winter coat and gloves. Bodyweight dipped to a little over 253lbs, even though been keeping calories up these past three weeks of training (I tend to be lax on weekends). I didn’t initially intend to train earlier but I felt like I might as well so that I could have a less complicated and stressful evening to get ready for work tomorrow. Soft tissue work starting things off. Didn’t have my biceps cramp on me this time either. I was actually surprised that they didn’t seem to really be sore at all coming into this session. My stomach was also not that tore up from stones either. So maybe I’m in one of those weird periods where I’m recovering well or the things aren’t taxing me as much. Maybe not, my calves needed a good bit of work during foam rolling. Not much else really did however. Neck rehab was ok. Felt pretty good for the most part. Stretching for hips, knees and ankles and then followed by a dead hang. Some things in my ankles/calves felt tight. Outside for axle pressing. Cold but not super cold. But occasional wind gusts meant get a little showering of snow off the roof. I had put down salt yesterday to keep the outside from freezing over. Axle is a primer and not pushing the weights here as we wind things down for the competition. A little later than I usually seem to do when working out on a Monday holiday as I think part of it was debating doing normal time and the other being that I know if I work out too close to noon, I got to worry about glare. Anyways, plan here was 4x4 with a little less weight than last week and dropping one of the two points I was pausing. Just holds at lockouts this time around. Things weren’t feeling too bad. I felt like I was getting better lower body drive today. That was when I noticed warming up that had my knee sleeves down. I was feeling good so I figured I’d just go with it. This is the best that axle has felt for me in a year. Yes light weight but even with light weights lately it hasn’t popped up like that and felt effortless. Perhaps it was doing those pauses in the dip and working to try and get my press to be flowing and not have a break. But it could be that my knee sleeves were inadvertently restricting my knee movements and not allowing for more lateral tracking. I started using them due to knee pain (which I think was from doing a lot more squats and such about 5yrs ago). So it may be worth seeing if this is something I should be looking at going forward here. I was pleased with how these felt today obviously. But I can’t let something just be good as I had a what if that I peaked too early for show as usually I feel beat. Oh well haha. I put some of the stuff away and went into the garage to do incline dumbbells in the garage. Same weight as last week for 3 sets but increasing the reps up to 7 this time around. So 8 and then 6 and now 7. Pressing felt better this time around compared to last week and it wasn’t feeling like very close to the limit and needing longer rest like the week before that. Maybe with a less intense axle variation or I was feeling in a good mood because it felt good. Biceps weren’t having me concerned so maybe that as well. I did more reps on the warming up set and these seemed to feel pretty good. Some tension in the left shoulder/pec but I think that is from lingering effects of suit work honestly. With those done, it was back outside for the overhead dicks presses. I guess I did these right last week as plan was 5lbs more for 4x4 this time around. Shoulders felt a little fatigued here but no issues with my triceps. Again, the left shoulder just feels very tight when doing the motion to rock the weight behind the head and then bring it back. I do feel that I am having a better body awareness here and trying to get these to feel right. While the back to front motion isn’t the best just yet, I feel that I am making up for it with how I’m lowering the weight initially to emphasis the triceps and elbow flexion/extension aspect. My last set actually felt the best and had the least amount of left shoulder tension. With that done, I put away some more stuff from outside before settling in for the remainder of the session in the garage. The superset from last week of deadstop style one arm rows and the heel elevated goblet squats with tempo again. Those rows had been intense last time and I had been a little worried with the biceps with how sore the were feeling. The plan this time around was same weight on the rows but increase reps by 2 and then increase the goblet squats by 5lbs and drop the reps by 2 there. Three sets of each. As the rows get heavy and need a bit to warm up, I did the same kind of warming up with the squats. I knew what to expect with the rows and I didn’t need much to warm up on the squats thankfully. The rows did feel tougher than I was anticipating that first set. But I felt I was better prepared the following sets. With the goblet squats, I went heavier than planned. I don’t have a 75lbs dumbbell and I couldn’t load up my kettlebell to that weight without the 25’s that were in use doing the rows. Takes a lot longer to setup/secure the plateloaded kettlebell vs dumbbells so I just went with my 80lbs dumbbell so I wasn’t dealing with anything that wasn’t stable/secure. I think that worked out fine for me. After this was done, I started prepping some food to eat afterwards. Namely the small meals that I missed with getting this session going. I’d be eating as soon as I was done (and then having a late dinner). The last item being that reverse lunge exercise with march holds. My legs were feeling pretty warmed up from the goblet squats so I only did a minimal warming up here just to get the motion down. Really it is just getting my knees to accept I’m doing these and then add the weight. Only 2 sets this time around but the increased reps per set I knew was going to be a gut buster by the end. These weren’t bad when I was doing them and not thinking about them. But afterwards I was feeling them and breathing heavy between sets and sides. I think more reps also had me notice my grip a bit too. I switched up which side I started with and I’m not sure that really mattered as the second side seemed to be quite fatigued with short rests between them. Put stuff away and ate a fair bit of food and stretched.

January 17, 2026 – Week 20, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Paused Safety Squat Bar Squats (2 seconds)
65x6
115x4
155x2
205x2
245x5
250x5
255x5
260x5

Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (left side only, with run up)
49x5
85x3
108x2
120x2
(60 minute rests)
140x1
140x1
140x1
140x1
140x1
140x1
60 Second Sets
130x11 (1 miss)

Yoke and Sandbag Husafell Carries (50’ run back)
Y – 180x50’
Y – 270x50’
Y – 360x50’
Y – 450x50’
Y – 540x25’
Y – 630x25’
720xpick (5 seconds)/290x5’
720x50’/290x50’ in 32.77 seconds
720x50’/290x50’ in 31.87 seconds

Rolling D-Handle Hangs
bw for 5 seconds
bw+70 for 45 seconds
bw+70 for 45 seconds
bw+70 for 35 seconds

Atlas Stones
55”
315x2
315x2
51” 
330x2
30 second sets
350x3

Stretching

Comments: It would be an interesting day for training. Last week with this session, I had been anxious and quite surprised with how well I handled going from a mandatory deload and like I didn’t skip a session and then do a light session for some of the events. But how would things be after doing a week of hard training and then expectation to do more than the week before as has been the case? Contest prep/peak is quite intense and I can see why building up tolerance to volume for my body to hopefully recover better is needed for the aggressiveness of plan. I’m learning all the time. I had more bruises from suit work but I wasn’t feeling as beat with only the top set. But even so, I didn’t feel as “rested” going into this session. I did try to go to sleep earlier like I had last week but fell a little short of that and did need to hit snooze twice. But that was fine because the winter weather had other plans. Thankfully where I am, there was barely anything but to the east where I’d need to go, it was not great. So there was some hesitancy with getting out to train (my one friend decided to train local rather than deal with the roads) as my parents warned that they saw accidents out that way. There were like 5 reported accidents on the route I take. I didn’t want to go too late and while I have off for holiday Monday, I really didn’t want o play around with training dates this close to competition with trying to manage stress and recovery. I contemplated training Sunday as it seemed like better weather wise. I’m glad I didn’t listen to that as my area got hit with a lot of snow Sunday morning. Drive out was fine most of the way (although there were some idiots in my local development) and then big slow down once I got close to the gym. There were only tow people there besides myself when I arrived and they left shortly afterwards. People that are generally in earlier came later and those that come later weren’t affected in the slightest. I had not walked on Friday because I took too long on my lunch to get ready and it got dark and cold fast after work and figured I’d rather prioritize sleep. I didn’t need a lot of foam rolling on my lower body but did need a bit for my upper back. Neck rehab stuff felt fine. Lower body stretching was good and nice decompression from the dead hang. On to training. Pauses with the ssb for squats. The ssb was already in the monolift so I figured I’d just do that rather than move. And perhaps I’m getting used to it. So like last week, this was to be a primer and doing 4x5 with same weight as last time. Notes were to flex glutes a lockout. I was being explosive out of the hole but kind of “coasting” to lockout. I think I didn’t focus on that as I was worried about losing my brace and getting off balance being violent and aggressive there. I think I also felt that some people do that even if the movement isn’t fast from the hole. These felt better than they did last week. My knees and ankles didn’t feel as stiff so I took bigger jumps in weight to get to where I was going to be. As these were feeling better, the weight was feeling easier than last week so I added 5lbs per set and that didn’t really change the difficulty here. With that done, I was moving on to my event specific stuff. With first thing being circus dumbbell. I did the same abbreviated warm up as last week. The plan was to work up to 140lbs for 6 singles and then do a timed set with 130lbs. For the 140lbs, I was to do 60 seconds rest between the lifts. I reset the dumbbell to be upright each time here. I misstepped slightly on the fifth one and almost twisted my right ankle at the start. Not sure what that was about. For the timed set, this was to be 60 seconds. Ms. Funk mentioned I should be focusing on the solid lockout as I may not get the down call at contest when I go fast. I believe up until this point I was more focused on getting it moving fast and my confidence again after some hiccups with needing the deload week. It hasn’t been a straight line of progress. But with how last week had gone, I felt I had things where I wanted them and that I’d try to have someone do commands for this week. It definitely makes a difference. On video it only looks like a fraction of a second but it feels longer. Ensuring the stability was having me not have the best balance with things with going from one rep to the next. All the little things added to fatigue as the set went on. I could tell I wasn’t on the same pace as I was with the 45 second sets last week. I rushed going for the 11th the first time and I aborted it and set it down. I checked my time to see what I had left and if it made sense to go for it again. The contest is allowing “shot clock” rules so as long as it is moving, it will count. I had like 4 seconds left so I went for it. It was ugly but I got the down call. That was exhausting. I know that I won’t be at 100% at contest due to the heavy medley being beforehand but I know I can push through. Up next was the aforementioned medley. Last week I had swapped order to get in a set of Hercules hold. That wasn’t in the plan today and even if I wanted to, not enough people to help do that anyways. I did have to wait a bit as the lanes were being used. But not so long that I wanted to change up the order again. Plan for today was work up to two top sets. Jumps for this have been aggressive considering things. The plan for today was 30lbs more than last week on yoke and 20lbs more on the husabag. This maxes out what I got with the husabags and I see no way of getting anymore into the one I have even looking at techniques others have used. Last week with yoke had been surprising in that I went up 80lbs from the last time I touched it and didn’t really have that big a drop in time. I was to only do 75lbs but the plate math was easier not dealing with chips. I decided to make the increase 40lbs instead of 30lbs. That way I could just do 90lbs jumps from the empty yoke to working weight. So get a little extra set with empty implement to see how knees doing. Also would have me within doing contest weight yoke next week if warranted. Did the same warming up that I did last week albeit heavier. The working weight took me a bit by surprise with my pick as initially I didn’t fully commit to it and thought I could pop it up and I didn’t quite stand up with it. With that little slap to the ego, I did it correctly and it went up fine. The husabag I knew was going to be a little different. It is the heavier of the two but it more shaped like the actual rock verse the other one that is just trapezoid shaped. It has nice spots to hold it. The more compact one does not and I remember how rough it felt my first session using it. It wasn’t too bad today. In training last year, I hadn’t gone over 700lbs on yoke so to go up this quickly and have it feel ok pretty neat. Not the fastest and I was a little worried that I’d get off balance here but failure wasn’t an option. Starting not under it to get tight and braced makes this tougher for me. But got it done and ran back to the husabag. A little hesitancy to pick at first but once I got it up I was good and it was a nonissue. Not sure why I decided to chuck it so violently after the first set. Yoke felt a little better on the second set. Only about a second slower compared to last week with less weight on both implements. Put that nonsense away and at a rice Krispie treat to get my energy up as I still had two more things to go. And this felt like the best time to have something in my stomach and not have the exercise cause me to feel indigestion. So to work the things for Hercules hold, doing the rolling d-handle hangs. Plan being 3 sets of 45 seconds. Now I’ve had issues in the past (as in all the time) with repeated efforts during a workout. Usually if I hit a heavy hold, I have to drop the weight down by like 90% to be able to do multiple sets. I was very surprised I did two comfortable holds with 100lbs for 30 seconds last week. I figured that I’d need to drop off a decent amount of weight to find something that would be good for 45 seconds. I apparently chose too heavy as I was only able to manage it for 2 sets and came up 10 seconds short on the third set. This was with long rests as my forearms were getting pumped up from these. First set had been fine if a little tough and then second set was right about my limits. I think my previous best for 45 seconds had been with 45lbs added (I am a bit lighter though). I do feel like these are better training than the Hercules hold for the event but I think it is still a good idea to get a session or two on the apparatus just to deal with the balance aspect. My forearms were pumped enough that I took a little bit with getting setup for stones. I didn’t want my tape wrapped too tight nor did I want my forearms that fatigued. Plan for stones was to do 310lbs to 55” for 2x2 and then move to the 51” platform to do heavier things. I did ask Ms. Funk if I could perhaps do 315lbs instead as that stone looked to be in better shape than the 310lbs at least when it comes to tacky accumulation as last week that stone just ate all my tacky and was dirty/dusty. I don’t remember the stones being like this when I was using the years ago unfortunately. Some of the stones I know didn’t get the “cleaning treatment” (the heavier ones) so they may still be like they should. I’m low on tacky (I didn’t plan on increase frequency with prep or having to deal with shipping/tariffs on my preferred brand lol). The only tacky left was some old Elite Tacky (I’ve not had good luck and needs to be heated up to use) and a little bit of Spider Tack (ok) and a little bit of STAB Tack (which I like). I used just the remaining Spider Tack for the 315lbs stone. I had to do a bit of maneuvering to get it from the one side to the other. This did stick better than the 310lbs but I needed more tacky after that so I had to use some of the remaining STAB Tack after that. 330lbs for a double was next. It went up easy the first rep but I had a little issue on the second. I forgot to tuck my shoe laces and I got my fingers on my right hand inside the loops when I went down so I had to not do that before picking up the second lift here. Dangerously low on tacky. I shipped some to my younger brother in Arizona so I didn’t have to worry about it possibly being confiscated by the TSA traveling. I delayed purchase of tacky due to no longer having a US distributor so having to pay international shipping and now tariffs on top of that. So pricy for likely only this one prep having atlas stones with tacky (out of vogue). I was not feeling the most energetic coming into the stones. Last set was a 30 seconds set with the 350lbs 21” diameter stone. This stone unfortunately also got the “cleaning treatment” but do to being pretty darn heavy, it hasn’t been as used so still has some stick to it. But it isn’t as it was 2.5yrs ago. My expectations was to get 3 reps here in 30 seconds and maybe try for 4. First rep was good and second ok, tacky was feeling like it was gone going for the third one so there was some hesitancy as I needed to make sure my grip was secure. The biceps issues happen when something that is secure suddenly isn’t and causes a gap/slip. There were some miscommunications with stuff as I think I had 3 seconds left after the third rep. Not enough time to get a lift (not shot clock like overhead event). But this is what I expected. Going to try and see if I can get some tacky (not the brand I like/want) to make sure I have enough for at least one more session on stones. Ate and drank the stuff I packed and put stuff away before driving home pretty late. The roads were clear by that point. Stretched when I got back and cleaned up. Very close to the end of this. Just got to keep it together a little longer.

January 14, 2026 – Week 20, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Suited Long Bar Deadlifts (straps)
No Suit
143x5
233x3
Added Suit (single-ply)
323x2
413x1
503x1
553x1
583x2

Paused Seated Safety Squat Bar Goodmornings (21” box, 1 second)
95x10
95x10
95x10

Supported Single Leg Dumbbell Romanian Deadlifts/Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows
65x6/6 – 56’sx6
95x6/6 – 86’sx6
135x6/6 -- 116’sx6
135x6/6 -- 116’sx6
135x6/6 -- 116’sx6

Zercher Jefferson Curls (45 seconds rest)
95x12
95x12
95x12

Stretching

Comments:  Still trucking along. The peak for this contest is pretty intense as far as progression with things considering the baseline with off season. Assuming things go well to the finish line. Biceps still sore from Saturday but think part of that is that I did heavy rows Monday so that didn’t really engender them feeling recovered by any means. There are spots that are still sore/bruised from suit work last week so not ideal going into another suit session. I woke up with my calves feeling a bit tense but that disappeared early in the day. Soft tissue work to start things. Still needing a fair amount on the calves but not as much as the previous session this week or last. Considering they felt tight upon waking that was a little surprising. No worries with my biceps feeling tense or pulling doing any warming up. Quads (especially the sides) really needed a lot of foam rolling. Needing stuff to feel good for suited pulls. Neck rehab was fine. No issues with the stretching for hips, knees and ankles. Dead hang followed after that. Temperature was up a little but it was still wet and cold in a way so it didn’t feel as warm as it could. But I knew I’d be plenty warm with just the nature of suited deadlifts later on. I did the tib into calf raise exercise for two sets to start things off. I did notice that I seemed to be rotating to my left side on the first set and tried to make sure I didn’t on the second. On to the heavy thing for the evening. Another session of getting into the suit and pulling weights. Last week had been good as far as my suited sessions have been this prep (which is two lol). The first one I had felt like all the pulls were max efforts and just all in my lower back with my multi-ply suit. I reverted back to my single ply suit with some tailoring done to have it perhaps not be so loose in the legs and that had felt like a gamble to do with getting 33-53lbs less weight from the singles for 4x4. But it worked out for me. Wasn’t 100% awesome but it moved things in the right direction. I didn’t feel dead in my back and soul like last time. I did have to reinforce the seems I’d sewn for another session today. Volume dropped a lot as the plan was to work up to just a top double. No back down sets or multiple reps. Idea being seeing where I’m at as far as trying to plan opener and second attempt. Advised to have the effort range be between comfortable and “these go to 11”. My weight is down a bit from last time I used a suit and part of it is also uncertain if my setup is going to be like contest. I could just not be very good with this kind of long bar with the flex at where I don’t get much out of it. Point is just putting in work and seeing how it plays out I guess. All that really matters is that weight goes up and things feel better. So my thinking here was that I’d treat it like I was doing my “attempts” but not exactly. Contest has the bar change at 550lbs to the long bar vs just a deadlift bar so my plan is to have that likely be my opener but have to see how things are. Rather not have to take an attempt besides warm ups on the other bar really. Contest has 25lbs jumps and with three attempts I’m probably looking at doing 50-75lbs jumps and maybe going for just 2 attempts. Anyways, my hope if everything felt amazing was to do 50lbs jumps to the double after warming up. In the best case scenario, that was going to be 603lbs for the double and leaving myself the option to do that with back up plan being 583lbs. I didn’t want to do the same weight as the singles ideally. The new stitching did make the suit a bit tighter in the legs but there was still issues with the legs riding up. But I could tell that it felt tighter overall with not having the straps as tight as I made them the previous week on the last two sets. With how 553lbs went, it didn’t feel so comfortable to me that I felt 603lbs for a double was going up without needing to go into the reserves, which was not what I was told to do. No berserker rage here. In hindsight, it could be that I had tightened the bar extenders and the bar sleeves weren’t rotating like they usually do. It just felt like the bar wanted to be stiffer today. I know for contest it would’ve been 25lbs or 50lbs here but I went with 30lbs as close enough. The start of that first rep was a bit slow but I knew I had the double once the second rep broke the floor. I had three here for sure but not sure if I could get four. At least not with the current mental state I was at. I’ve only gone into greater arousal this prep for pulls on that one week after I was sick with the 513lbs sets for doubles. I saw a splatter of blood on my left sock after that set and I was worried if that had come from my nose or something but I guess the bar had cut open my shin at some point. Did the double and shut it down. I want to do more but I got another heavy session left and when it matters is going to be the competition. Just have to remind myself of things like no clue how this setup compares and that I’ve never pulled on that bar so anything is technically a PR. I will need to make sure I keep reinforcing the seams so that things are good for day of competition. This is the shorter session with aim indicating specifically to be able to recover for Day 3 session. So like last week (after putting away the deadlift stuff) started with seated ssb gms. I had aimed for max flexion last week but apparently aim is hips and keep the lower back rigid. Save the rounding for the jeffersons. So I adjusted my ROM and how I was doing these this time around. 3x10 with more weight and still doing a pause. These actually felt a bit more lower back doing them this way honestly. Which is what I wanted with the blood flow here. Besides suited deadlift, the next thing was also the logistics hassle for me. Superset of supported single leg dumbbell rdls with chest supported dumbbell rows. The addition of being allowed to have my hand support as really allowed me to work the ROM and weight on these rdls compared to being at the mercy of my balance. Last week the rdls had felt light and I felt maybe I went too heavy on the rows. Well this week same weight on rdls (more reps) and more weight on the rows (less reps). At present, I don’t have enough weight to have both sets of implements fully loaded at the same time so I have to move weights from one to the other between the superset. I did feel that last week only one warm up set hadn’t been near enough for my body to be ready for rows. So I did an extra work up set. The rdls felt fine and rows like last week I felt better as I did the sets. I’ve maxed out the small weights I got besides a pair of 2.5lbs so hopefully plan is more reps on the rows or something. I’m glad these both held up considering the biceps being sore earlier in the week and heavy rows. Last thing for the session was Jefferson curls. Same weigh and reps as last time. Apparently, I was to do those with a minute rest and I didn’t pay attention to that and likely did 1.5 minutes rest since that’s usually how long it takes me to do a lap inside my house and come back. I paid attention this time as it said 45 seconds rest. With the length of set, it was going to be about 30 seconds of work and 45 seconds rest. Of the sessions doing these with actual weight, this was the least issues I’ve had with holding the weight. Put stuff away and started cooking up dinner and then stretched.

January 12, 2026 – Week 20, Day 1

Axle Push Presses (0-2-0-2 tempo)
36x5
66x3
96x2
126x2
156x2
186x3
186x3
186x3
186x3

Neutral Grip Incline Dumbbell Bench Presses
56’sx10
87’sx6
87’sx6
87’sx6

Overhead Dicks Presses
65x3
95x2
120x5
120x5
120x5
120x5

Deadstop Single Arm Dumbbell Rows/Heels Elevated Goblet Squats (4-0-4-0 tempo)
62x6/6 – bwx7
112x3/3 – bw+40x4
162x6/6 – bw+70x10
162x6/6 – bw+70x10
162x6/6 – bw+70x10

Reverse Lunges w/ March Hold (2 seconds)
bw+10’sx4/4
bw+40’sx8/8
bw+40’sx8/8
bw+40’sx8/8

Stretching

Comments: I was beat from Saturday training but not defeated if that makes sense. My biceps did feel sorer this time after stone training compared to the previous time. However, that did seem to sneak up on me with both my biceps cramping on me just getting into position to do some foam rolling. So I was mindful of that. I recall it took me until the third session last time I did some kind of stone stuff where I didn’t worry about biceps cramping later. Anyways, world is crazy but I’m feeling fine for the most part. Weight maintains in the 255lbs range. Got to stay on target and focus. Soft tissue work starting things off. Didn’t have my biceps cramp on me this time. Still seems like my calves needed work but not ton like it had been the past two weeks. Quads however did need a good bit. Hamstrings and upper back the usual. Neck rehab was ok. Felt pretty good. Stretching for hips, knees and ankles and then followed by a dead hang. Outside for axle pressing. A little cold but not so much that I really needed my warm up top on for it. Remembering to treat these as the “primer”. Same as last week with the tempo. Weight increased 10lbs and volume dropped a good bit down to 4x3. Notes were to try and work on getting the timing right and bracing. Ribs down. My left biceps wanted to cramp on me the last rep of my last warm up set so that had me a little on edge. I’ve had that happen before when biceps are sore. I didn’t feel as stressed as last week coming into these. That had been after taking deload and then seeing if I was out of my funk (mental and physical). Knees did feel a little achy near the end on these but felt powerful. I put most of this away after I finished here as I’d be needing to use the outside rack later in the session. But moving on to the incline dumbbells in the garage. Same weight as last week but only doing 3x6. I made sure to confirm that weight same and reps reduced. I guess part of the taper for the competition. I’ve only done the short stint so this the full prep circumstance with Ms. Funk. I did a few more reps with the work up dumbbell just to get my joints warm as last time my left elbow had been tense but eased up as I went. These felt about as challenging as last week even with the reduced reps. I think partially from me knowing I could do these when last week I wasn’t sure I could and there being hesitancy on the clean to shoulder with my very sore biceps and making sure that I didn’t pull something being sloppy here. But I got these done and was able to move on to the next thing. Which needed to be done outside because I’m too tall. I’ve done overhead dicks presses before but it has been a long while since they were regularly part of my training. I’m talking 2014. I’ve tried doing them in 2021 briefly with doing my own training plan (like two workouts) and I did try a seated variation last year once but it wasn’t feeling right on my left shoulder so I dropped it. But I recall these really being good with lockout and stability on overhead with the need to brace, the movement and constant tension. So now they are back. I wasn’t sure what I’d be doing here weight wise for 4x5 at RPE 7 but I figured it had to be more than the empty bar. Left shoulder still feels funky (not sure what I did to make it angry over the last 12yrs) but tolerable. Was surprised that what I thought would be my weight of 95lbs flew up on a regular press to start. I was wondering if I could go even heavier and put 120lbs. That brought me back down to earth as that felt like a substantial increase. Really trying to get the movement and position of these right. These get tiring during the set fast where rep one is easy and rep five is tough. I feel these went well enough. Cleaned up the outside stuff to finish up with garage stuff. So it has been supersets but that is a bit altered for this session. The overhead dicks presses replaced the z presses and were on their own. Heel elevated squats were now paired with a new row variation. Now new for me but new for this prep and training. Deadstop style one arm rows (heavy) allowing for some body English. Usually my jam as far as rowing goes but a little leery with the sore biceps. I was going to need some more working up sets here to hit what I should be doing here. The goblet squats I probably didn’t need to do as much but figured it was a good idea to match them set for set. I wasn’t sure which side to be the starting side as both felt sore for rows with my biceps but I pretty much switched set for set until getting to working weight. I used some liquid chalk just to make sure my grip was slipping in any way here. These rows can take a bit out of you when not in practice on them compared to saw other styles of rowing I’ve done recently. The goblet squats were also pretty tiring and I was feeling the fatigue in my legs and posterior chain on the last two reps of the second and third set. I had to take a bit to cooldown and recover before finishing up the session. The new reverse lunge exercise was by itself this time around. Same as last time with the weight and sets and the holds in the “march position” for 2 seconds. I didn’t need as much time to get used to the movement compared to last week. Those added reps were also tiring here. I probably need to start with the other side next time as that feels like the side that is lagging slightly here. Put these away and got to eating dinner before stretching.

January 10, 2026 – Week 19, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Paused Safety Squat Bar Squats (2 seconds)
65x6
95x5
125x4
155x3
185x2
215x1
245x5
245x5
245x5

Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (left side only, with run up)
49x5
85x3
108x2
120x2
140x1
140x1
45 Second Sets
130x10
130x10

Hercules Holds
300x30 seconds

Rolling D-Handle Hangs
bw+100 for 30 seconds
bw+100 for 30 seconds

Yoke and Sandbag Husafell Carries (50’ run back)
Y – 230x50’
Y – 320x50’
Y – 410x50’
Y – 500x25’
Y – 590x25’
680xpick (5 seconds)/270x5’
680x50’/270x50’ in 31.63 seconds
680x50’/270x50’ in 30.03 seconds

Atlas Stones
55”
310x3
310x2 (1 miss)
51”, 30 second sets
330x4
330x3

Stretching

Comments: Wednesday deadlifts I think had me feeling a bit better mentally with my training and circumstances. I knew that if I was to survive the planned Saturday session I needed to get my sleep right for Thursday and Friday and get up like I’m going to work Saturday to insure I have enough time to finish everything and to try and have friends/help with stuff. As this would essentially be the entire contest for multiple runs minus deadlifts. Body was certainly feeling better as the week went on. I’m not sure where random bruising on my right knee came from though. Probably from the suit work honestly as I got bruises on my pecs from it as well. Cold and rainy today. It has been a good long while since I’ve gone out to train at this time. Lot of cops out today. Apparently the gym has a group of youth athletics people training in the gym in the mornings on Saturday until about noon which I’ve been missing. A bit slow with starting training today even though getting in early as the gym owners had moved stuff to make space for a new piece of equipment and then moved stuff back. Thankfully that was done by the time I got to doing event work but it was bit much. My one friend is back to training at the gym since she is prepping for Arnold. She had jokingly said that my last session I was low energy because I didn’t have friends. She may have been right considering how the session went for me today. I was a little worried with some things as having to setup stuff, was I really back on track and I think just some stuff being treated like I didn’t miss a week or skip it before. Soft tissue work to start and not as much was needed as the previous days. So maybe a sign body recovering normally again. Neck rehab stuff felt fine. Lower body stretching was good and nice decompression from the dead hang. So starting things off was squats. Change in style again. Indication was like the tempo push pressing this was to be a primer exercise. Pauses with the ssb for these. Worker up to 3x5 at RPE 6. The gym equipment shenanigans was happening at this time and I wasn’t sure what rack to really use so I just went with the monolift like last time I was here. Turns out that was the only choice as the other racks needed to be resecured to the floor and that meant drilling into the concrete and brick foundation. And that shit was loud. I did not go full atg style here as I feel that if I do that and pause them on my calves, there is not real tension and completely relax. So squat to depth for the holds. Pauses also seem to put stress on my knees. I did 30lbs jumps here like when I was doing the tempo ssb stuff earlier in the offseason prep. But I was worried that 245lbs was too much with how 215lbs had felt. But I guess I just needed to be serious as 245lbs was fine. The angle really showing that my upper back has gained some size these past few months. I made sure these were 2 second pauses by counting in my head to 3 seconds as I noticed I was counting too fast on things like paused rdls and I know I was probably going to do that on paused squats. So that worked out. I took longer rests than usual here because of the “construction” but also helping my friend with resetting power stairs. So this went well enough and it was on to actual event work. Circus dumbbell. A little leery with how these had treated me last time. I also decreased the warming up sets here as I probably won’t have this much selection at the show warming up. So big jumps for the most part besides going from the second heaviest to heaviest empty. Since smaller jump there, I did another double. Each set I was doing the run up and toppling the dumbbell here. What was written I almost didn’t follow. The plan was to work up to 140lbs for 2 singles and then do timed sets with 130lbs. My ego wanted me to do the singles at 150lbs as that is contest weight and I’ve only not done contest weight or above besides the first two sessions on the dumbbell this prep. But I figured I should listen to my coach and considering that I needed to take a deload last week. My hamstrings were a bit tight from Wednesday but these went up fine enough. I did have to borrow wrist wraps from a friend as I forgot to pack them for today. I was too focused on the other stuff. So then it was the timed sets. I was to do this weight last time for 2 sets of 30 seconds but now it is going to be 45 seconds sets. I was not expecting these numbers coming into this. When I hit the 8th rep on the first set, I was wondering if the timer wasn’t working. I was equally surprised that I matched reps on the second set. I did feel like I was getting to the point where like last time I got sloppy and missed a rep but I seemed to course correct and actually feel better. I think I got to where I just knew the dumbbell was secure and right place just by how it was contacting on my traps and side of my head. I was a bit out of breath after the first set there. I feel on pace for what I want at show. But I know that there will be other factors like length of the run up, dumbbell may not feel the same and other factors. But in the ballpark so to speak. Feeling the most prepared for an overhead event I’ve been. Now I had to change up order of operations here. I was to do yoke and husabag next but I knew if I did that, I’d have 0% chance of getting any Hercules hold in. I did want to do that and who know if I can get in even more than 1 set here with people’s schedules and such. I only got in two sessions total last year for the two shows I did with this event (though one had to change due to equipment safety). I had another session but I bailed on it as I felt like crap (last heavy workout before world’s) and this is a pain to setup. Last time and this time, I’d need to setup it rather than the gym owners getting it setup beforehand like in the past. It takes at least two people to operate it and with how it was stored, I needed two other people to help me get it out and total of four people to set it up. It took so long to setup that one person that was potentially going to help had to leave and another was only going to be able to stay for one set. The plan had been to warm up to 3 sets of 30 seconds with something challenging (but not like struggling at 20 seconds). So I did only a dead hang for 15 seconds to warm up and got assistance from enough people to do one set here. I had figured 300lbs would be a good weight but to my chagrin, it felt too damn easy. Which I guess is both a good and bad thing. But the setup is there for next time now and hopefully I can get some more runs it. So with that being a one and done, I had to decide if I wanted to go on to yoke and husabag now or do something similar for the remaining sets. Since someone was using the lanes for stuff, I decided I’d do rolling d-handle hangs. I’m kind of flabbergasted with how much weight I was able to do here on these. I guess last time I did these with not thick handles was 2022 and I did 46lbs added for 30 seconds (with stuff in the tank). Here I did 100lbs added. And this felt much harder than the Hercules hold did. I guess I don’t really need to worry about grip for that. Then it was time yoke and sandbag medley. Well moving up in enough weight I can go from sandbag to the husabags we got. Plan being work up to three top sets but only do two if I didn’t feel like the third set would be a solid one. Which was a possibility. I had skipped this last time and then deload week after that so going from doing 600lbs/225lbs to now doing 675lbs/270lbs. Last time had literally been the first time going into 600lbs range after being in 400’s to 500’s range this whole offseaon and contest prep. So this was going to be a bit spicy as it were. Similar warming up as last time but I adjusted things near the end. I added 5lbs to the weight as I didn’t want to deal with chips here. At 500lbs, I switched to just half the yoke course. The top weight doing a pick and hold seems to be helpful as it feels heavy as shit at first and then it moves well enough when it is time to go. I’ve not tried moving this husabag before (the cheaper brand) so that was a bit interesting. Didn’t feel like smart idea to just one motion it up and I bopped it up my body before going. I didn’t feel fast on the yoke and just felt ok with the husabag. I felt I got a little unstable on the second run with yoke and figured it was good to call it there. If I had known that that run was actually faster than my first run, I’d probably have done another haha. This was a big jump up in weight on both things and I only really lost 1.5-3 seconds in time. So that is encouraging. It was now time for stones. Well I did eat a rice Krispie treat first. I may need to start packing these for this kinds of sessions as it is a long day and I am feeling a bit drained by the end of it. Plan for stones was to do 310lbs to 55” for 2x2-3 and then do 330lbs to 51” for 2 sets of 30 seconds. I’m not sure what “cleaning” people did to these stones since I’ve not been doing them but I do not remember the 310lbs stone being this dirty. They seemed nice when they did whatever they did to them but now they just seem to be a mess. I went right into the 310lbs stone and the first set was mostly fine. I got off balanced on the last rep in the lap position but extensions felt good. I don’t have a ton of tacky so I didn’t retack (just tried to activate what I had) for the second set and that sucked. I was having issues with picking up the stone for the planned third rep but it slipped and I was a little worried about trying again and it slid on me during extension. But I wasn’t going to beat myself up on that. I guess I will just avoid that stone and do 285lbs or 315lbs going forward. I knew the 330lbs was a bit better with sticking. I got someone to time here and first set was good. I got 4 reps as time ran out. I did retack but I couldn’t get much on for the second set. I was a bit slower this time so I didn’t bother trying for a 4th rep there. Clean up still a pain but not as much as last time. Thankfully I didn’t have to do anything after like last time I did stones. I had packed some food for afterwards as I want to try and mimic contest stuff as well as keep my weight stable. Cold and rainy drive home to finally stretch out.

January 7, 2026 – Week 19, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Suited Long Bar Deadlifts (straps)
No Suit
143x5
233x3
Added Suit (single-ply)
323x2
413x1
483x1
533x4
533x4
543x4
543x4

Paused Seated Safety Squat Bar Goodmornings (21” box, 1 second)
65x12
75x12
85x12

Supported Single Leg Dumbbell Romanian Deadlifts/Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows
65x5/5 – 56’sx8
125x5/5 -- 106’sx8
130x5/5 -- 106’sx8
135x5/5 -- 106’sx8

Zercher Jefferson Curls
95x12
95x12
95x12

Stretching

Comments:  We’ve gotten to the weather where it is very dry and got to watch out for cracks in skin. One of my fingers had been bleeding from cuticle on Monday session and some knicks on my shins from the dumbbell rowing. Got to keep a watch on my heels I guess. The dryness also has me coughing a little more. Still super annoyed about that one coworker getting me sick last month and still having things lingering. They better not be sick when I come back in the end of this month. I made sure to get in a walk Tuesday during lunch. Stuff is crazy right now and just doing what I can. Soft tissue work to start things off with getting ready to train. Still needing a fair amount on the calves but not as much as the previous session this week. Needed less in the other areas as well. Neck rehab was fine, little tension in the left shoulder. No issues with the stretching for hips, knees and ankles. Dead hang followed after that. It was a bit warmer today compared to Monday. I did the tib into calf raise exercise for two sets to start things off. Then it was time to make the deadlifts. Suit work again. Last week had been a deload and that was needed as an intervention. Last time had not been good. It wasn’t terrible but it just left me wrecked. Each pull had felt close to RPE 10 (when was to be RPE 8-9) and just felt like it was all lower back. I had expected more from myself as well. But this did lead me to reconsider things as far as whether more suit was really better here. I took a gamble and went back to my single ply suit and I did some tailoring on it to make the legs tighter to hopefully keep from sliding up my legs. I had to watch a tutorial to remind myself how to sow as it has been like 25yrs since I last did it. So a bit of risk here as well in hoping that the seams would hold. Plan for today was to do 4x4 with between 520-540lbs with no misses. It sounds like the plan is suit on the rest of the way and heavier next week. I know suit work can take a toll on me (as seen with how last time went). First two warming up sets like last time with no gear and then putting on the suit after that. Gradually adding support gear and stuff as I went and fine tuning things. No shirt or shoes here. Shirt gets in the way with getting the straps on by myself with this suit and keeping reasonably tight and shoes make it harder to bring my feet together. I also wore four pairs of spandex shorts to add some thickness to my legs and hips but also to cut down on bruising on my thighs and hips. I had learned this trick with my single ply suit in 2022. I did feel like I could get my hips down into this better compared to last week and it wasn’t feeling like all lower back. But I was still very nervous with how the working sets would go. Granted there was a lot of pressure on my body, things went fairly smooth. I was gradually making the straps tighter the first two sets and decided to add 10lbs for the last two sets. I could tell by the end I was feeling tired from the effort. I didn’t realize how jacked my shoulders look with this lighting and the suit. I was feeling much better about how the suit was going. I will need to do some more tailoring for next session. My seams held for the most part but some got stretched and it was also still sliding up by the end. Thankfully, the rest of the workout for lower body stuff wasn’t terrible intense. Suit takes it out of me and my Day 3 sessions seem poised to be really long and tough days so get the strain done on deadlifts and do stuff to promote recovery. So the first of those things was the seated ssb gms. I had mentioned I like them and more so than the Jefferson curls and that something like that is good after the suit work to recover so these showed up. Advised to do 3x12 with a pause and light. I could use the empty ssb. Which was the plan but I felt like I probably could go up a little bit and I did each set. I took off my glasses (like I’m doing now on Jefferson curls) so as not worrying about them falling off and fully commit to the mobility/ROM. I had the power rack setup here and I wasn’t too sure with how I was proceeding with the session if I should leave it or put it away. I didn’t necessarily need it for what was next but it probably would be needed for the last thing. So I left it out and incorporated it into the superset. The recent superset has been single leg dumbbell rdls with chest supported dumbbell raises (upper back emphasis). Well looks to be that the rdls stay but the raises are not rows. Which lead to a bit of challenge. Having enough weight to load these up as needed. Essentially I was going to need to do one exercise and then take weights from that and put them on the other dumbbells to do the next exercise and so forth. I’ve done chest support dumbbell rows but it has been since like March and April last  year I was doing them. I was given some advice that I can hold onto something doing the one leg rdls due to my balance issues if that would hopefully allow me to keep constant tension and increase the ROM to like how I was doing on the deload week. The rdls were suggested 120-130lbs for 3x5 reps. I was pleasantly surprised how comfortable these felt with having the support guidance and being able to get a full ROM here. I ended up adding 5lbs per set here. It will be interesting to see how these progress. The rows what I did to warm up hadn’t been enough as that first set felt quite rough and had me thinking maybe I went too heavy too soon. But I knew that sometimes it feels off at first and then I can repeat it going forward. Last thing for the session was Jefferson curls. I was kind of surprised that I’d do these and the ssb seated gms. 3x12 and lighter and trying to move through them fairly quick. I had considered trying them with holding the weight in my hand but I figured it was a little late now and not worth hassle trying to figure it out. I think I was just concerned about pressure and bruising in my forearms and my nerves. But no issues that first set. A little the second set when I tried to hold it a different way (and my upper abs cramped on me) so it does seem that I need to try and keep my palms facing up to not compress the one nerve in my forearm on the left side. Got through the third set and no issues there. I was definitely feeling the session after the fact. Put stuff away and cooked up dinner before stretching.

January 5, 2026 – Week 19, Day 1

Axle Push Presses (0-2-0-2 tempo)
26x5
56x3
86x2
116x2
146x2
176x5
176x5
176x5
176x5
176x5

Neutral Grip Incline Dumbbell Bench Presses
56’sx8
87’sx8
87’sx8
87’sx8

Yielding Barbell Z Presses (3 seconds forehead)/Heels Elevated Goblet Squats (4-0-4-0 tempo)
95x3/bw+40x5
125x5/bw+70x8
125x5/bw+70x8
125x5/bw+70x8
125x5/bw+70x8

Supinated Bent Over Dumbbell Drag Rows/Reverse Lunges w/ March Hold (2 seconds)
46’sx6 – bwx3/3
70’sx6 – bw+25’sx3/3
96’sx12 – bw+40’sx6/6
96’sx12 – bw+40’sx6/6
96’sx12 – bw+40’sx6/6

Stretching

Comments: I was feeling better than I had a week earlier but wasn’t sure if that was enough to say I’m good to go and back to it 100%. I did make a concentrated effort to not miss meals just because I slept in on days off last week (with holiday and weekend) and I think that did pay off in that my weight has gone back up to 255lbs range. Cold but not windy this day. I had gotten my training for the week late Sunday so I had some time to look over it and see what was in store for me. I kind of wanted to gauge how much the strain was going to be each week and expectation on when last heavy session would be with prep as 5 weeks away from competing. The peak seemed to be right for the most part with World’s (though I had to call off the last heavy session). Gradual reduction in stuff appears planned here and not going 100% on every single thing it seems. So will be a bit gradual with this week building things up. Soft tissue work starting things off. Still seems like my calves need a lot of foam rolling since last week. Not as much today as last week sessions but still feels like a fair bit more than it used to be. Quads needed some work as well but not ton of it. Hamstrings and upper back the usual. Neck rehab was ok. Upper back, neck and shoulders have still been feeling pretty tense from the previous week going into this week. I really hope that this calms down or something. Stretching for hips, knees and ankles and then followed by a dead hang. Time for axle pressing as seems to be the start of my training week. Notes had been that this was more of a “primer” of things. Tempo being added here but more in the sense of pauses rather than slowing the eccentric or concentric. I’ve done pauses overhead for 2 seconds and I’ve done 1 second pauses in the dip and at lockout during this long prep so this was just a little extra being added. Told to have things be explosive and light. I did ask if that meant to have it as light as last week and clarification was aim for something RPE 7. I was also told up to me if I wanted to wear support gear. The hope with the holds at the two spots was to hopefully improve my lockout surety and try and get my timing issue ironed out with having my upper body lag slightly making it not a smooth movement. But I’m also not really sure how to engage right from the start as I tend to feel relaxed with the weight in the rack position. But I tried my best to have those cues be present. I elected to do 30lbs more than last week. It was about the same temperature as last week minus the wind so I was feeling less cold and didn’t feel like I needed to wear my warm up top here. For the most part, things felt strong. I could tell that my fatigue was increasing as the sets went on with my stability on the holds overhead. I kept to just thinking about the reps in the set vs overall that seems to help me get these done and not stress about it. With some slight changes to the session, this meant this was the only outside activity tonight and the rest would be in the garage. Incline dumbbell was the next thing as per usual. It had been lighter weight and more reps and gradually increasing reps and decreasing sets to get the volume done. But this time weights bumping back up. Plan being 80-85lbs for 3x8. Since the option before was 70-75lbs, I had stuck to my 70’s as solid dumbbells and made going from one exercise to the next easier. But I only have one 80lbs solid dumbbell and I didn’t have any further outside pressing with dumbbells so I needed to use the plateloaded handles and I could indulge in going a bit heavier. My left elbow was feeling bit compressed/tight with the clean to shoulder initially but I guess the weight applied made it shut up. I was a little worried this was going to be too much but ended up being doable so that was nice. Did get a little tough on the last set. The rest of the workout became supersets. First up being the consist one of yielding z presses and the tempo goblet squats. Suggested weight for the z presses was the same but increasing the reps. Goblet squats decreasing the reps and suggesting increase by a bit. I had kind of liked how the solid dumbbell had felt on the deload week when I did goblet squats so I figured I’d got big/go home deal here and went with 70lbs for the work sets. Something about using a weight above 35lbs on these that makes it feel better as far as movement. Doing them with no weight at the start feels achy. Definitely feeling the work put in here. I might have miscounted the third set on the goblet squats by one rep but that’s ok. Felt like solid work. Then it was the last superset. It has been consistent with the row portion (which I don’t like with  how the dumbbells scrape up my thighs and shins) and the lower body part has been pretty weird as of late. So rowing the same and a new variation to single leg lift. I was told to do weighted reverse lunges and then hold the one leg up in the “march position” for 2 seconds. I wasn’t sure how the knees would handle these at the start but I felt pretty good and ended up using a fair amount of weight considering things here. Rows were fine, the reverse lunges were tricky and exhausting. I took a short rest between sides to recover. My coordination got better as I did more sets here. Put stuff away and got dinner finished and stretched.