June 21, 2025 – Week 4, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle High Pulls from Blocks (9”)
113x2
157x2
201.5x2
245.5x2
289.5x4
295x4
300.5x4
306x4

Yoke/Power Stairs (17”)
235x25’/25’ -- 214x2
325x25’/25’ -- 259x2
415x25’/25’ -- 304x2
505x25’/25’ -- 349x2
EOMOM
Y – 600x25’/25’
P – 394x2
Y – 600x25’/25’
P – 394x2
Y – 600x25’/25’
P – 394x2
Y – 600x25’/25’
P – 394x2
Y – 600x25’/25’
P – 394x2

Seated Leg Curls (2-0-2-0 tempo)/Monster Mondo Deadlift Start Leg Presses
110x5/440x10
155x5/660x6
220x13/880x15
220x7/880x8
220x7/880x8

Wide MAG Grip Cable Rows
140x5
180x5
220x15
220x15

Stretching

Comments: Last session of this current higher volume block of training. I kind of knew that some parts of the session today would be rougher than others since I pretty much have to get everything back to the M-W-S schedule of training after the competition at the gym the previous week. So not as much rest from the last lower body training session. Hopefully this will be the last time between now and the competition with needing to make those kinds of changes (not counting the week of for family vacation as that may actually work out). I think I’ve got the plan in place for training the rest of prep with the different phases of things. Biggest change being upper body session as going back to alternating overhead with lower body drive and benching sessions. I didn’t really feel a rush to go out to train today so I did sleep in an hour to make sure I was feeling rested. A good bit of traffic getting out of the city but after that no real issues. Again, not many people at the gym today. It felt really hot out today (and it will be hotter the next two days at least). I had brought about 300lbs of sand to get some bags and such ready for the next part of prep but I wasn’t sure if I was going to spend time doing that today. I knew I’d need more foam rolling for the lower body since I wasn’t getting as much rest between sessions and weights had been heavier. Neck rehab continues to be good. Simplified mobility stuff. No issues with hips or adductors warming up. Starting things off with the axle high pulls. Knurled axle again. Plan was to do 4x4 with 5kgs more than last time as progress has been good. Especially with having the knurling helping with keepings things from slipping. I was kind of surprised how well things were feeling as I was definitely expecting some lower back soreness here. I did make a change from my plan here in that I’ve been sticking to the same weight each set on these once up to working weight. But with adjusting things for the next block, I’m not going a two week phase of another axle clean variation and going into the full motion. So I figured if I was feeling good, I’d take a little more rest (only because how long it takes to adjust weight, the blocks and secure things) and go up 2.5kgs a set. I wasn’t too sure what that would be as I was doing these but my hope was that I’d be doing over 300lbs for the last set. Trying to set things up where I’m touching around that weight on the things that are to be “overload” for parts of the lift for axle. I know it isn’t where I want it to be right now and I do wish I had more time to figure out what actually works for me. These went ok. I did end up having to put liquid chalk on my hands for the last one because I was sweating too much even with the knurling. I really dislike training events during the summer months. Now on to the medley stuff. So today was yoke into power stairs. This had ended up being much more exhausting compared to the zercher carry and sandbag carry into load pairing last time. It being as tough as it was had been the major reason I considered doing EOMOM or adding some support gear to be able to recover and manage. Plan here was to do no support gear other than knee sleeves on the power stairs to protect my knees from the implement causing serious bruises. These two exercises definitely let me know that my lower back was fatigued from deadlifts and goodmornings on Thursday. Same distance plan with 25’ down and back with weight (so getting two picks) for yoke but dropping the reps from 3 to 2 on the power stairs. The runs for yoke are half the distance I’m to be doing for show and the power stairs are quite heavy and don’t need to be killing myself with volume there as I still got deadlifts during the week. I was thinking I should go up the steps each time here (as longer rest period I could reset) but I figured it was best to make myself deload each rep during this volume phase and save going up steps for the next phase when doing just one top set. The picks for yoke felt heavy on my knees and I felt a little stiff and slow. However, unlike last time, I actually got better each set up to the 3rd run and then it dipped only a little after that. Which is generally how I seem to be with multiple sets. The power stairs were quite rough in comparison. First set was ok but the second set felt like a disaster with how tough it was to get the reps. My knee sleeves weren’t really helping much with protecting my knees as they were getting bastarded with the plates. But my third set with them felt the best. I didn’t have any doubts about finishing up the yoke runs (though my knees were feeling it with the power stairs) and it was more the power stairs with sweat and fatigue. I had tried to cut down on sweat by taping my wrists and using combo of isopropyl alcohol spray, liquid chalk and chalk but to no real avail. Exhausting but I have remind myself that this was all without any belts on either things. I was quite overheated here but I didn’t need to lie down in front of a fan like last time so I guess that is something. Hair drenched with sweat. But it was hot and sunny enough that leaving stuff outside was drying them out. Supersetting tempo seated leg curls with deadlift start leg presses. Last of these for a bit I guess. I got to cut back so I can do more event specific stuff and let stuff recover. With the leg curls, doing tempo stuff and plan was same weight as last week and try to get an extra rep on the first set and then do about half those reps on the other two sets. For leg press, this was to go for a top set of 15 reps and then 2x8 with same weight. What it has been the past few weeks really. This is one of those exercises where it takes a bit to figure out where I’m at and what I can do. As well as taking time to get things adjusted. Besides that very first week, I’ve felt like I’ve been under weight on these by a good bit, despite making some pretty big jumps. 90lbs the first time, then 50lbs the second time and I was considering 80lbs for this time. Leg curls were fine working up but my knees were about killing me at the start. I know it was from the power stairs as they had been fine doing the high pulls and the previous lower body session. Just being whacked about was not helping things. They were still aching on the second work up set but I could tell that things were fine with how the legs were feeling so I stuck to my plan to load up 880lbs. The leg curls were fine and then it was time to leg press 400kgs for a little more than a baker’s dozen. This felt really heavy to unrack but then I did the reps and again felt like I left stuff on the table here. But I feel like I was a lot closer to what I should be getting. So maybe 20lbs for sure left. Then the last thing that was actually part of the workout was the seated cable rows. Heavier session of pushing it on 2x15 for the sets. Still supposed to leave 3-5RIR even with pushing it. I already had my mind set on a 20lbs increase here. There is still some tension in the left arm as far as brachialis and forearm but It is manageable. The first set was feeling a little challenging so I was surprised the second set felt easier. I slammed a shake after this but I wasn’t quite done for the day as I figured I’d try and get the sandbag situation taken care of. This ended up taking over an hour. Adjusted the throw bags so now I have 30-60lbs in 5lbs increments (and found all my 5lbs bags that people inconsiderately left inside bags). The thing that was the time vampire was the sandball implement as I had paver’s sand that wasn’t moving smoothly. I had gotten the biggest size sandball as I wanted something awkward and needed to fill it up so it was underweight and not 308lbs or more. I think I got it where I want it at 278lbs (show is 286lbs). I went home to stretch rather than stay any longer as I was sure I was sweating way too much out.