June 19, 2025 – Week 4, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Clean Complexes (hang clean to 3 second pause to sternum first rep, regular rep second)
46x1+1
76x1+1
106x1+1
136x1+1
166x1+1
196x1+1
226x1+0
226x1+1
226x1+1
226x1+1
226x1+1
226x1+1
226x1+1 (3 reactive dip drives)

Paused Axle 1+1/2 Deadlifts (3 seconds, 3” below knees, straps)
120x3
170x3
210x2
260x2
300x1
350x3
350x3
350x3
350x3

Rack Safety Bar Good Mornings (lower to deadlift pull height)
65x5
115x5
155x5
205x8
235x8
265x8

Contralateral Load Single Leg Stepdowns (18”, foot to rear)
bwx3/3
bw+45x10/10
bw+45x10/10
bw+45x10/10

Stretching

Comments: It was good that June now has a holiday that I have off work. With how things were Tuesday and just kind of feeling tired and processing, I was essentially banking on using Thursday to catch up mentally and physically with myself. One thing I was able to kind of ruminate on was that my shoulders tend to not be at 100% after doing decent weight and volume of zercher yoke carries. I had this when training for Puller Express in 2023. I did go up 60lbs from the previous carry session as well as increase the pressing weights a good bit so shouldn’t have been so surprising. But I need to keep pushing the zercher stuff to be within a hell of a chance of doing that event at worlds. I need to manage recovery better to have success here. I’ve not missed being sweaty all the time with the heat and humidity. It looks like early next week that there could be a heat wave and potentially have temps “15 degrees hotter than normal” for this time of year. Really hope that doesn’t end up on my in office day as the place can’t get good airflow and I got to wear layers to be “professional”. I wanted to just sleep in and I could to some extent but I had to eventually get up and train today. I didn’t feel it was the best thing to train as if I had work and wait until after 5PM to start as I’m kind of playing catch up. I won’t have my usual 2 days of rest like I usually get before going into weekend training so best to train a little bit earlier so as I can maybe get a little more hours buffer before training hard again. I didn’t get to fully figure out my plans with training modifications but have a strong idea of the direction of things. But like I said, I needed to start training at some point. I was kind of surprised that my calves didn’t really need much in the way of foam rolling. The left one needed more than the right. Quads a bit tense but hamstrings fine. Having stiff/sore upper body seemed to distract from the inner thigh and hip thing on the right side. But I also think it is getting better. I was very surprised how tight my pecs were. Knees weren’t really barking at me at all warming up. Axle clean complexes to start things of. Same as last week with deadlift the first rep and then do a hang clean pull to sternum and then hold there for a 3ct before finishing the clean to the shoulders followed by a normal style axle clean. Sticking to no support gear besides a soft belt so that I have place for the slick axle to gain purchase. I had indicated that I was doing 3 stints of 2 weeks but with my plans and adjustments for upper body sessions and the time frame, this will be the last week. I need to integrate the full movement together sooner as well as potentially space out sessions more. I did try to stick with last time with mostly metal plates for loading. I was initially thinking 30lbs like I did with the first variation but that had been before I saw that that big a jump was a bit much to go up. I was perhaps too light the first week for the effort and way too heavy the second week. My hope was to have things a little closer with this variation. The first week it was good but it got too easy by the end but I didn’t want to stop and add weight and disrupt the zone I was in. Doing 16lbs more this time around felt like a safe bet. Maybe too safe. But I was also worried with how my upper body was feeling from the previous training and wondering if some stuff was overworked (shoulders and chest tight, tension in mid traps and right biceps). Things were feeling pretty crisp here. But it just seems that 30lbs jump right to the planned working weight felt a lot heavier than the previous 30lbs jumps. I missed the catch for the second rep of that first attempt. I was annoyed as this is what happened last time I did the second week. But as long as I regroup and don’t land on my butt, I’m doing better than last time. I put liquid chalk on my hands and went back at it. This definitely felt tougher than I’d have like here but it wasn’t as rough as the second week of the previous variation. The second half these started to feel easier and I was wondering if I should add a little weight. I decided against it as I may end up having to some more cleans around this weight next week so I elected to do 3 reactive dip drives after racking the last rep of the last set. Right shoulder was a little stiff here as not expecting it. I don’t know if it is just doing the zercher carry stuff that makes the “second week” feel harder or if it is just adding weight. I feel like these two variations were the most bang for their buck if not doing the regular clean (coupled with the block high pulls with axle). Took the weights off but still needing the axle for the deadlifting. No more snatch grip without a belt. The deadlift event for worlds is 300kgs (661lbs) with axle for reps from standard bar height. No suits or briefs allowed. This is the one that is like 99.99% chance I bomb it. I mean 645lbs on a deadlift bar from 2011 is my best ever “raw” deadlift per strongman standards. I have done 635lbs from 13” in 2023 and feeling like I could’ve done 650lbs. But I’m not there right now and most of my deadlifts lately have been elevated for the past few months. So I got to figure out where I am with an axle floor pull. I could’ve just put bumper plates on the axle and just do that but I wanted to be extra. Bumper plates can bounce a bit and wanted things to feel more sturdy and dense. And also like I had to setup for it. So I put the wagon wheels on the axle and stood on 4” platform so it was at standard height. So while not snatch grip, this was going to be similar to what I had been doing. These were going to be 1 ½ deadlifts with pauses. Pull up to about 3” below knee and hold for 3ct before setting the weight back down and then pulling for a full rep with no pause. That being one rep. I had a goal for the weight to hopefully be where I’m at which was pretty much just doing 40-50lbs jumps all the way up. Working weight to be 4x3. Well it has been a bit and as I was working up, it became apparent that the weight I was aiming for was going to be a lot harder than I wanted it to be and that would make this session not really a “lighter” week. So I swallowed my pride and did 40lbs less. These aren’t easy and it gets tiring fast. I guess it was good that I didn’t feel like I needed to take longer to rest between sets or that the sweat had anything slipping here. I will need to adjust my goal numbers here going forward. Though perhaps not as much as I thought as I think I just need to have the difference in percentage from the training max be greater from the light and heavy sessions. So treat this as 5% lighter for now on this and the next lighter session (variation change after two sessions). From there, on to the rack ssb gms again. Probably the last week of them for this training block. Things have been improving but I feel that keeping them in weekly will take away from recovery for the sandbag/sandball loading after this 4 week block winds up. Like a few of the things during this way shorter than I was planning offseason (that I had to modify), I think it is worth revisiting these when I get the opportunity to do offseason stuff again and stretch it out. I tried to piece it all together from the past three sessions here. Swapped in a fresh shirt. Knees were thankfully not as stiff/achy as last week but still noticeable with unracking the weight. This week being 3x8 with increasing weight. I figured that 15lbs more than last week with 30lbs jumps was about right if plan was not to really have any RIR. Those first two sets were not inspiring confidence in that assertion. But I do need to remind myself that these are the top weights thereabouts I did the first week and the second week respectively. Maybe I took the last set a little more seriously (I kind of build that in with adding more support) but this felt good and I feel like I left 2RIR here for certain. So I probably could’ve been greedier on this. Oh well. Last thing for the session was stepdowns. Still 3x10. These hadn’t felt so comfortable or good last week so I was kind of expecting that, especially since I was adding 10lbs more to them. I was fully prepared for my knees and ankles to be upset with me doing the bodyweight only to get acclimated. But things were good. Ok then. Added the weight and was expecting there to be resistance and discomfort. Not really. Things were going quite smoothly here. Comfortably even. So these went by pretty quick and I was done before I knew it. Took a little bit of time to put stuff away and stretch as I needed to eat something and kind of cool off. I still got to get thing sorted out but at least somethings feel good and on point.