July 26, 2025 – Week 9, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Sandbag Tosses (14’2”)
30x1
35x1
40x1
30/35/40x1
30/35/40x1
30/35/40x1
30/35/40x1
30/35/40x1

Yoke/Power Stairs (17”)
300x50’/50’ -- 254x3
400x25’/25’ -- 314x1
500x25’/25’ -- 354x1
600x25’/25’ -- 414x1
700x50’/50’ -- 454x3 (eventually)

Sandbag Over Bar (56”)
250x1
250x1
Sandball (30 seconds rest)
283x1
283x1
283x1
283x1
283x1
283x1
283x1
Sandbag
250x5
250x5

Gripper Closes
HG100x10/10
HG150x5/5
HG200x1/1
HG250x0/3

Gripper Negatives (5 seconds)
HG200x5/5
HG200x4/4
HG200x3/3
HG200x2/2
HG200x1/1

Band Hand Expanders
6.6x10/10
8.8x20/20
8.8x20/20
8.8x20/20
8.8x20/20
8.8x20/20

Stretching

Comments: I was a little leery with training today. Part of it being that this was going to be my last self programmed session as going with coaching for next week so a little bit of a “does this matter” feeling but also just that legs and hips were feeling sore from Thursday session and I wasn’t really expecting that kind of soreness really. The yoke into power stairs was already pretty darn taxing not feeling like that stuff is sore. But need to train this day so that I can finish out this prep timely. I can’t really delay training another day as I do unfortunately have the in office day Tuesday next week. I did set my alarm for work time to get up but I kind of knew I was likely going to sleep in and not push things as far as rest needed. I hit snooze once before turning it off and ended up sleeping about an hour later than my alarm was set for. I was bit slow going because I wanted to give myself as much time as I could to get stuff not feeling so stiff and also to get caught up on my training videos and write-ups so that I have those available for my coach. So a bit later getting out to train (but thankfully not bad traffic). I packed 3 extra shirts as well as a sandwich to go with my protein shake as I figured this might be a long one and in the event it gets really late, I want to be able to get some food in me ASAP. Two of my friends were training at the gym today. It has been a bit since things lined up where people were there this summer so I did end up spending a bit of time talking and helping them with their stuff while I was doing my own warming up. Soft tissue work, neck rehab and mobility was fine. So first was bag toss. This was already setup from someone else doing it before I got there. Height was a bit higher than competition setting but that was fine as I was planning on doing this as a lighter session. Initially, I was looking at doing the clean pull session again with 55lbs to the same setup I did last time but aim for 4x3 instead of 6x2. However, I felt that with how things were and how taxed that session actually ended up being for my rotators that it was in my best interest to consider that not the light session but a heavy session. And I didn’t want to just not do bag toss. I didn’t have the best session last week with the heavier week but I did eventually manage to do something by the end. It was a good session to see how fatigue would affect things which will be the case since this will be the 6th event of contest. Talking with the different coaches on the consults did hammer some points home that perhaps I need to do a few more touches on some things. Still some philosophy differences but sound advice. I wasn’t expecting much with having done these last week and usually my knees aren’t thrilled. Plan was to do three bag toss series since likely I’ll be hitting the first three bags at most. So 30/35/40 and aim to do that 5 times with kind of a normal rest period to reset and wipe off sweat between sets. I barely took any rest between the tosses to warm up and I was surprised how good things felt. This felt like I was getting the rust off as I felt like I was getting better with each set. A little faster, less hesitancy and such. Fourth set was my best run. This had the same feeling as the banded speed pulls session in that I felt good and my confidence was high. With how brutal the next bits of the session were going to be, I took my time as I was already drenched in my first shirt. Yoke into power stairs. This had not been fun putting these together for the first time and it was a bit of wake up call. So much so that I did an extra session of power stairs into last week’s session just to try and fix things and get confidence back. I did make some changes. Seeing as how the setup for the actual stairs will have more space and the setup at the gym is quite condensed, I figured I’d move everything. I didn’t need to use the stairs if the weight is so heavy I will struggle to get the reps on it at the end. Also since I was emphatically told to not use the kilo plates under any circumstances besides doing powerlifts. The thinner hundreds were in the main error and rather than moving 400lbs of plates and then having to move them all the way across the facility when I’m done, I’d do the medley on the concrete instead of on turf. I setup the step and the implement to the one side so that I could do the full run for the yoke and then come to do the step. Just need to deload each rep. Yoke I did same as last time with 100lbs jumps and doing half the course distance. Power stair I alternated 40lbs and 60lbs jumps. I was nervous going into the working set. But I told myself to just finish the yoke and worry about the power stair as it comes. I’m glad that yoke wasn’t bothering my hips or legs but I was really slow. I seem to be quite slow on my moving events. To be fair, I’ve not really been training for speed on these the previous two training cycles as one cycle was no moving events and the other was an odd setup where I had to load my own weights. For comparison’s sake, I’ve done about 100lbs more than this for about the same time (actually slightly faster) in 2018. I just didn’t feel comfortable going faster as I felt like I’d lose control or something. Something to work on in off season. I then moved on to the power stair. I had struggled with 425lbs last time so going up about 30lbs I was not terribly confident. 425lbs had been the most I’ve ever attempted on power stair so getting this up would be a PR. I definitely took more time than I actually needed and finally went for it. It was tough but I got the rep. I took too much time here as I timed out by like 2-3 seconds (I had like 30 seconds after the yoke run). I hesitated with it loaded as I considered how I wanted to proceed. Do I call it here or do I get 2 more reps. I did eventually decide I’d do two more reps and treat it as singles. Fatigue (and strength) was such that I couldn’t get the implement out in front to load but with the plates being thin enough and the step low enough I could essentially duck walk it and shrug without it getting stopped by my hamstrings. I’d rather not do that but if it works, it works. Knowing that was the case, I took less than a minute rest to do the last one. I think that if I commit to that knowing that that style will work for this particular circumstance I can aim to try and finish. But have to see what makes sense as still another 50lbs to yoke and 30lbs on the stair. Second shirt thoroughly soaked and on to some more nonsense after putting away the current nonsense.  Sandbag loading. Well more so prepping for the sandball and dash event. I was a bit conflicted about how to go about the plan here. So plan was to do 6x1 with a heavier bag than last time with 30 seconds rest and then do 250x2x5 with about 90 seconds rest afterwards (ideally not much rest). When I last did this, it was 275lbs I thought I was doing in 2022 but it ended up being 306lbs by mistake. I was thinking of doing the same this time but seeing as how the grip issues on the sandball last time depending on how it landed seemed to make things quite rough, I figured it was probably best to stick with that implement so I get some more familiarity. I did consider adding runs for short distance but figured that sandbag carry was covering that for now. Sandball was a little under contest weight and I didn’t really want to beef it up so much that it was over contest since only one I got. At least not for this session. There was 5lbs of crumb rubber left so I tossed that in to get the sandball up to 283lbs so just about 1kgs shy of contest. Still pretty floppy. A bit of a delay as wanted to warm up to it with the 250lbs bag but that had a hole in it so I had to wrap it up with some athletic tape to survive the session. I did feel like I was adapting to the implement from last time I touched it. I was feeling good so I did an extra rep which did end up being the hardest rep of the day. I ended up taking bit longer rest than I was planning before swapping in the sandbag. I think part was just how long I’d already been at the gym and the other being just how sweaty I was and wanting try and dry off to not worry about slippage under this kind of fatigue. I did at least remember to tape my wrists this time. I didn’t feel quite energetic but I did the sets comfortably.  I sat in front of fan and consumed my sandwich and shake. It was a good bit later than I wanted it to be and I still had some grip work to do. Plan here was to just see if I could do my 250lbs gripper and then do actual work with negatives and the hand band stuff. Not supersetting them but their own thing. Just enough reps to get things going. Left hand was close but no cigar in the close. It is almost there. Right side I managed to get the close so please there. I figured I’d see if I could do more and surprisingly got 3 reps here. Comparison wise, a little tougher than COC #2 which I couldn’t close fully when I had a chance to use one in March (same day I picked up the Inch dumbbell with both hands). Going to be a while before I mess with the 300lbs. I then went back to the 200lbs and did a reverse ladder to get 15 total reps. Usually I do one rep and switch hands and do so back and forth. This time I did consecutive reps and that is a lot harder. Much easier for the right. Then on to the hand bands. When I first did these, the 6.6lbs band was incredibly tough and then over vacation I got it for sets of 50. I wasn’t sure how tough the next levels would be so I brought them all just in case. 8.8lbs feels very similar to how the 6.6lbs felt but not as rough comparison wise. Right hand index finger knuckle is feeling a bit of an ache like when I first did the 6.6lbs. I made sure I did 100 reps total here to get good work in. I think I was at the gym a total of 6hrs (2.5hrs not lifting probably heh) so I drove home to stretch out and knew I’d be having a late dinner. Feeling bit more comfortable with myself on how things went. If I can get overhead figured out, I’ll be golden.