February 23, 2025 - March 1, 2025 - Week 12

 February 24, 2025 – Week 12, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Push Presses/Dumbbell Push Presses/PVC Thoracic Extensions
2 second pause first rep in dip
30x3
60x3
90x3
No Pauses
120x2/10’sx2
150x2/10’sx2
180x2/10’sx2
210x2/10’sx2
240x1 (ugh)
240x3/40’sx2/4
240x3/40’sx2/4
240x3/40’sx2/4
240x3/40’sx2/4
240x3/40’sx2/4
245x3/40’sx2/4
250x3/40’sx2/4

Dips
ssx3
bwx3
bw+25x3
bw+55x8
bw+55x10

Paused Push-ups on Kettlebells (5 seconds, feet elevated 6”)
bw+20x13
bw+20x13

Paused Prone Dumbbell Retractions (1 second)/Single Arm Dumbbell Overhead Triceps Extensions w/ bands
10’sx12/12+mbx20--20
10’sx12/12+mbx20--20
10’sx12/12+mbx20--20

Stretching
 
Comments: Sunday was a bit of catching up on things. I didn’t bother with trying to force all meals in like I get during weekdays. I made notes in my schedule to not force it if I sleep-in. I was kind of surprised my weight dropped a good bit. It has felt like it was going to stay at the low 270ish range but it dropped under 270lbs for the first time in over 15 months. Pretty been above that weight since 5 weeks after 2023 SC Nationals. With training, I knew what I wanted to do for the session but I wasn’t really sure what I’d be doing the next one. See, this is to be the last of the triphasic stuff and I was to kind of transition after that. Either keep the intensity high by doing more sets and reps or test for a working max. Or to drop intensity to do lighter stuff in either set sets and reps or like a deload session of 5/3/1. Play it by ear kind of thing really. Feeling a little stiff in the knees and maybe a little tired. Hard to tell if allergies/cold/stress or just having to go into the office the next day. I seem to feel not great right before that happens as I got to make sure I get things ready. Same as last week with this being rebound reps on the axle for many sets of triples. No RPE indication here again. My hope was to kind of do what I’ve been doing with these and have the first session work up over the sets and then aim for straight weight sets the second time around. I tried warming up a little differently to see if that helped with some aspects. DIdn’t need to do so many PVC extensions working up. That wasn’t going to really need prep. I was hopeful that it being not bright out after work that I wouldn’t have so many issues with racking and unracking weights with glare. Again, the dumbbell and PVC stuff were really just afterthoughts here. The axle was the focus. I felt good working up in 30lbs jumps here. I tried to do things low key and not hyped but apparently I needed some hype to do the weight I selected. My first attempt I had a struggle to get a single with 240lbs and when I couldn’t catch it to do a rebound rep, I hesitated before reracking the weight. Not a great start and I feel an obvious sign combined with the incline log stuff that deload needed. I took about a minute at most to recompose myself and get back under the weight for the triple as planned. It took about three sets before the axle started to feel good and move like it should. Maybe I got warmed up enough to get things firing or I got used to it. I felt good enough with how the weight was moving at that point that I decided to add weight the last two sets. Which in hindsight was not a good idea. I got 245lbs well enough but 250lbs was such that I couldn’t stick to the protocol. Longer rest to prepare and I couldn’t get all the reps as rebound style. I got two reps and then had to rack the weight before going again. Still three reps but not how I should’ve. I had two times where I didn’t go for a rep. No missed reps but feeling that way isn’t great. But I’d feel worse if I went and missed probably would’ve ruined the workout and my week. Signs pointing here to me doing deload level next week unless I seem to recover and feel better as the week goes on. My right shoulder was feeling pretty stiff and a little sore after the last set here so I wasn’t feeling that great going into the rest of the workout. I had just added back in weighted dips last week and those can be touch and go on the shoulders so not thrilled I was potentially going to have that issue after just one session on them. As they had felt good last week and felt like there was something that was hit that has been missing in training for upper body. Plan was to do same sets warming up but lower reps and do 2 sets with 50lbs added. Similar to how I used to do these with doing a set of 6-8 reps and then doing the same weight for max reps on a second set. Then going up next time by 5lbs. But I wouldn’t be going to failure like I was then. Get close to it so I can recover for next time. Needing to stay tighter because of concerns with my right shoulder, did have these feel like more pressure on the body. Sometimes get lightheaded when going for reps because of this. That usually was only an issue with slightshot dips because of the additional added weights used. I went up 5lbs from last time just because I think. I felt like I had to fight swaying of the weights a bit more than last time. But seemed to work out fine here. From there it was push ups. Same as last week with the “block” pushups. Plan was to do 2 sets of max reps leaving 2-3RIR. I kept the weight the same (though tempted to go to just bw) and increased the pause in the stetch to 5 seconds. That definitely cut down the reps. It is possible that these are taxing a bit more with the secondary pressing day. But they do feel good on my shoulders and chest. I was definitely cutting it close with the RIR and likely more like 1RIR really. I think I just wanted to match reps and I had kind of lost count the first set with the length of the holds. I may need to adjust this next time (if I do them) with transitioning to contest prep. I’ll have to see how I feel by the start of next week I think. Superset of prone dumbbell retractions and single arm overhead dumbbell triceps extensions (with bands). These were a bit tougher than I was expecting them to be last time. So I kept weights the same here and tried to make them feel easier/better. I do feel like I got through them with less issues compared to last time. Put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching.

February 26, 2025 – Week 12, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Front Squats
45x10
95x5
145x3
195x2
EMOM
238x1
238x1
238x1
238x1
238x1
238x1
238x1
238x1
238x1
238x1

Deadlifts w/ Bands (straps)
No Bands
135x5
Add Bands (+12/+71)
135x2
185x2
225x2
275x2
315x2
315x2
315x2
315x2
315x2

FFE Dumbbell Bulgarian Split Squats (6”)
bwx3/3
40’sx12/12
40’sx12/12
40’sx12/12

Band Lying Leg Curls w/ Ankle Weights (10lbs each)
2(mmb)x20
2(mmb)x20
2(mmb)x20

Paused Ab Wheel (2 seconds)
bwx27
bwx22

Paused Banded Lying Clam Shells (3 seconds)
mbx20/20
mbx20/20

Stretching

Comments: I wasn’t feeling too bad about things after work Tuesday. My knees had been achy being in the office chair but I only had to take one method of allergy meds going to the office. It was also light enough outside that I could go for a walk which hasn’t been the chase with how it has been with lining things up on these in office days. But then my body decided that I shouldn’t have a good rest of the day by having my QLs tighten up on me. Muscles in my lower back just seized up on me shortly after I got back from walking. It makes no sense. The only thing I can think of is just the tension from hanging weight from dips as a possible culprit. My hope was it would calm down as plan was this Saturday would be my last deadlift testing session. It calmed down some but not much so coming into a lower body session like this wasn’t great. This was a bit of deload (other than pulls) on this session so I figured I could tolerate it. I do more foam rolling and mobility stuff before starting training. Front squats were lowered to doing 10 singles EMOM style. I wore the lifters this time. It just doesn’t seem like anything I was doing for front squats was helping matters here as I still was having knees be uncomfortable (mostly the right one) and not feeling like my usual power I have on these. I at least didn’t have any issues with the back spasms keeping me from doing anything in training. Lifts looked smooth and crisper as I went but my right knee kept feeling achy. Need a change this in the future if running again I think. I was not looking forward to testing front squats next week for a top triple so likely not going to unless I can get my knees feeling loads better on them next week. Band pulls again. 5x2 and more weight. So now 3 plates in weight not including the band tension. I could tell there was fatigue on these compared to the first two weeks. Like first week felt super speedy and second week there was fatigue and I got super speedy again for the last 2-3 sets. I didn’t feel biceps tightness here but I was keeping an eye on my hamstrings and of course the tense lower back. It took until the fourth set for me to have a set feel like how I wanted it and then closely followed by the fifth and final set as feeling the same. Trying to get through the rest of things after that. The assistance work was somewhat deloaded in that the volume was decreased by one set on each. I’ve tried pushing the weights on these weeks in the past part of the cycle but I didn’t feel it was wise to do so this time seeing as how fatigue has built up. But I figured I’d try to keep the weights the same on these just with fewer sets. The front foot elevated Bulgarian split squats up first here. I’ve been a little worried with these because of the tension in the back of the knees on the right side from the hamstrings. But it hasn’t lead to anything. I gambled a bit here with doing fewer warming up. I think I just wanted to dive right in and get this over with. No plateloaded dumbbells today (same as last week). This did lead to a rough first set with the 40’s but felt better as I went. I knew even if I wasn’t feeling the best here, that I’d be able to handle this weight for 3 sets and not be dying as I’d done 4 sets the previous week. The extra set is where things get interesting. Next was banded lying leg curls. My hamstrings weren’t as angry with me as they were last week thankfully. First set was ok and second set was stupid easy and then third set was quite challenging. I did a little more walking around with the ankle weights seeing if that helped with the tension in the lower back and maybe help with ankles and knees. No dice there. But it felt less like work compared to the past two weeks. I took a break at this point to start getting dinner ready with the plan to do the rest of the workout while it was cooling off. Ab wheel again. Only two sets here so I figured I’d try and push the reps. Adding reps beyond 20 on these is really tough. The holds add up and have to get past that initial uncomfortableness barrier in the beginning and get through it. Last thing was lying clam shells with bands. I decided that I’d increase the reps on these to 20 with the reduced sets. Still 3 second holds. I did actually take rest between sets this time rather than one right after the other (did not rest between sides though). Didn’t seem to have the lingering soreness in the hips like last time. Put the last of things away before eating dinner and then stretching out.

February 27, 2025 – Week 12, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

12” Log Incline Bench Presses
95x3
125x3
155x3
185x3
215x3
245x3
245x3
245x3
225x7

Inverted Ring Rows
bwx3
bw+45x12
bw+45x12
bw+45x12
bw+45x18

Incline Dumbbell Triceps Extensions (3 second eccentrics)
10’sx5
26’sx15
26’sx15
26’sx15

Paused Leaning Dumbbell Lateral Raises (1 second)/Paused Half Kneeling Band Face Pulls (1 second)
17x12--12/lbx12
17x12--12/lbx12
17x12--12

Stretching
 
Comments: I don’t remember if I took Dayquil or not the day before. But I know I will be taking some today. I’m not feeling like major cold stuff but I feel fatigued and the sniffles and post nasal drip aren’t fun to have going on. Trying to get through the training and work week to put in my best effort Saturday with deadlift. Litt more soft tissue work with foam rolling to try and get things to calm down further in the tensed QLs. I wouldn’t really be needing them so much here today with this session. A heavier week for the log incline pressing. After going too heavy earlier and having to modify things, trying to have this be similar to how I’ll be doing things with log strict press in contest prep with band triples and heavier top set weeks without bands. Not exactly what I’m doing with the log incline at the moment. Shoulders were feeling a little achy but I try to not let how things feel be the judge of how the session is going to go. I’ve felt great and underperformed and felt terrible and overperformed. Log incline pressing can be hard to gauge as sometimes I feel good from the get go and other times crap and feel better. Or I feel good and then it becomes crap or I just feel like crap and it stays crap. This one was kind of going up and down on that working up. With the 30lbs jumps, sometimes it doesn’t feel like the next jump is going to be so bad. With how I was feeling, I was considering lowering the weights by 5lbs (plan was 3x3 and then minus 20lbs for rep set). That would be less weight than planned based off percentages from estimated max from the 5rm set I did two weeks ago. Looking at the 2021 workouts, I actually had done my 5rm for this session with working weight. So I was trying to mentally talk myself up into doing 250lbs at the same time. But I knew that wouldn’t be a good idea as I had done that two weeks ago and it had me getting a 5rm instead of 6rm. It is good I didn’t go heavier as 245lbs was heavy enough. More so than I’d have liked it to be. Felt slow and there were times it didn’t go in the groove. I’m actually surprised I was able to recover from those times and get the triples done here. 20lbs off and I was hoping that I’d feel better to rep things out. Of course comparing to 2021. 20lbs off only felt a little easier and it felt like a tough time to get the reps that I did. Video says I was good for more than 7 (leaving 1-2RIR) but it felt like I was at that range. 2 reps shy of what I hit at equivalent in 2021. The workouts had been fine but I got greedy with trying to reclaim past prowess and I’d probably be fine and all if I stuck to being 20lbs under from that time. But something does have to give at some point to get myself back up there when other things are still hitting PRs. Speaking of which, inside to do the rest of this workout. Ring rows again and this week being a rep set at the end of the usual sets (or holding for time after the last rep but that’s boring). I felt I got things in a good groove last week so I was hopeful I could replicate that from the start. I was noticing some strain in balancing things from the QL stuff but it didn’t hamper me here. I was thinking here that this is an exercise that rarely do I feel like there are joint aches typically from doing too much during the week. Muscle soreness yes and maybe some aches in the forearms from doing too many elbow things (flexion and extension) but not like say the shoulders or knees tend to. Maybe that is why these are a somewhat enjoyable exercise for me and I can kind of be zen with them. 3x12 was not a problem and got ready for the rep set. Hitting a technical PR here. I’ve done bw+35x20 and bw+55x16 in 2021-2022. I may try to keep these in the training even with contest prep if it makes sense to. I’m still not 100% sure on contest prep and I may need to change things on the fly if it doesn’t feel like it will be of benefit. Triceps next. Change in the style of the dumbbell extensions but still doing accentuated eccentrics. More reps but less sets. I think the less sets I more thankful for. I was initially thinking these would be a nice distraction before moving to something different in contest prep. But I might need to reevaluate that as these felt good. Like, better than the lying down variation I was doing. Maybe lighter weight is why. I don’t recall these hitting this way when I did them in 2021 though. The right arm still has issues as I get to the end of the sets but these felt good and solid. Last thing the usual superset. But not really. It has been just standard lateral raises coupled with banded rows lately but that changes. Unilateral lateral raises with them being a “leaning” style and then doing band face pulls while kneeling. 3 sets of laterals vs 2 sets of face pulls. I know I can generally do more than both hands at a time with the laterals but I was to be doing these with pauses and control. In the past, the only variation of leaning laterals was lean away style. It now seems that leaning in style is in vouge and hits the medial deltoids better. Never done them so I figured I’d try that out. These are definitely superior. I think I’ll stick to these if doing just stuff not specific to an event (like an axle clean). Face pulls felt good to be doing them again. Went over to my folks for dinner (they’d been away for a few weeks) and then came back home to stretch before bed.

March 1, 2025 – Week 12, Day 4

Dynamic Warm Up

Depth Drops to Box Jumps (12”)
18”x1
18”x1
25”x1
25”x1
32”x2
32”x2
32”x2
32”x2

Deadlifts (straps)
135x5
225x3
315x2
365x1
405x1
455x1
501x5
446x2

Comments: Things did not go to plan here. I kind of knew I was fighting an uphill battle as soon as I felt my QLs seize up on me after work Tuesday. I couldn’t really change course with things as not really my plan with deadlift stuff and I kind of need to pivot to the next thing in two weeks’ time to be able to get in the full training prep I need for the thing that matters. But that and then needing to take Dayquil and allergy meds to get through the week and have restful sleep was also not a good sign. Trying to trick my body into thinking it is all good. I did my best with getting to bed early and getting plenty of sleep. I didn’t walk Friday as I wanted to focus on work and not worry about potentially taking away anything recovery wise. I was feeling very anxious coming into this session. Only because of the deadlift. That had been the thing I’ve been working on these past 12 weeks. And this was the testing day for it. Answer some questions. I wanted to get this out of the way first so I could focus with training my sister and not be anxious. I did more warming up with foam rolling and mobility stuff and I was feeling pretty good. Same as it has been with the box jump variations. I like being able to do them but I’m not entirely sure if they are doing anything for me besides having me be better at jumping onto boxes just under 3’ off the ground. I wanted to try and go up a little bit more in height from last time and hopefully have it where it doesn’t take half my working sets to get to landing above parallel. Did two singles at each height and did 7” jumps rather than 6”. Things seemed to work out here for me. Only one rep where I felt I got a little lower on the catch but it was higher than most of what I had the first two weeks of these. Last set was the best like usual with these as I get more warm and build in confidence. And then time for deadlifts. Ugh. Plan was to work up to 95% of training max for a top set of reps leaving 0-1RIR before dropping don 10% for a double. Now this isn’t intended to be the end of the program as I’d ideally do session the following week of EMOM and then deload lower body stuff the following week and hit the max session then for single or reps. Or start a peak. Which is kind of what I’ll do. But for me, this would let me get in a top set of reps with 500lbs and I could gauge things from there. My best is 8 reps from over a decade ago in training. I was really hoping to match or beat that but really, anything over 5 reps would be I guess technically best I’ve done since 2016 injury. The first two sets working up were feeling powerful so I was thinking maybe I pulled this off. Then the next plate added brought me back down to Earth as it was feeling heavier and similar to how things felt when 460lbs felt tough. But it didn’t feel quite that tough. But I was sweating nervous and felt like throwing up. I don’t like when I feel this way. But try to ride the wave if I can catch it. That first rep was ok but not bad and the second was fine and I was thinking at that point I could do this. Then the third rep came and it felt similar to how 250lbs had felt on the incline log press had been two weeks prior. 8 reps or more was not happening today. I was going to have to fight for 5 reps. Which is where I called it. I didn’t need to do more to know where I was at. I had another rep in the tank. I had added 1lbs to the weight just in case for technical PR if I matched reps and I guess because 501kgs didn’t get lifted at the Arnold. But really all this did was show I’m about the same as I was with my deadlift from about a year ago. Which while not losing ground is good, it doesn’t feel great. I could tell I was done and checked out for the day at this point and did the double after this just to finish the deadlift. My stomach was still churning and could feel my abs were quite sore from the effort. I didn’t want to bother with going for a max triple block pull after that. I was still up in the air about the assistance work but decided screw it after I started setting things up for my sister. I need to rest and recover and recalculate. That’s not to say I did nothing after that. I did try out some sandbag rotational tosses inside with smaller sized bag (35lbs) and normal sized (45lbs) to get an idea of what that will be like. I’ll still need to see if I overhead or rotational yields better results here for me to focus. Messed around with some machines to see if stuff felt ok or worked and did some YOLO rolling thunder deadlifts that were a little over 95% of my best with no chalk or anything. Didn’t bother stretching and got home to catch up on the Arnold.