July 28, 2025 – Week 10, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Clean and Push Press
One Clean
30x10
60x5
90x3
120x2
150x1
180x1
210x1
Clean Every Rep
240x2
240x2
240x2
240x2
240x2

Zercher Yoke/Sandbag Carry & Loads (49”, with run backs)
195x33’/33’
285x33’/33’
375x33’/33’
465x33’/225x33’/465x33’/225x33’ in 59.07 seconds
465x33’/225x33’/465x33’/225x33’ in 59.83 seconds
465x33’/225x33’/465x33’/225x33’ in 57.83 seconds

Paused Axle Floor Presses (2 seconds)/Sandbag Bearhug Squats to Box (24”)
76x6
116x4
166x2
206x2
242x6/225x12
242x6/225x12
242x6/225x12

Dips (2-0-2-0 tempo)/EZ Curl Bar Curls
bwx30 seconds (7)/62x15
bwx30 seconds (8)/62x15
bwx30 seconds (7)/62x15

Stretching

Comments: I received the workout for this week Sunday evening and I started to sweat. What have I gotten myself into? Instructions had indicated “something that is attainable...but will make you work this week” and that was not wrong. If I knew what was to become of me this week, I probably would’ve not done as much as I did on Saturday training haha. Weight back under 260lbs and kind of expected that with the sweat and heat on Saturday. A bit of change in frequency with stuff so I did have to figure out logistics with what I had at home to have things run smoothly. Namely because I had my in-office day so I couldn’t really afford to be training super late into the day as need to clean up and eat and get to be reasonable hour to go to work early. I setup some stuff during my lunch break so that ready to go as soon as off work. And considering what I was doing, I didn’t eat my late afternoon sandwich so that I wasn’t having any indigestion issues. Did foam rolling (didn’t need as much as I was expecting), neck rehab stuff and stuff to get my knees, ankles and hips ready. Then it was time for pain. So axle clean and press back again. Did not have a good time with this last week. So much so that I had to reevaluate things and hand reins over to someone to help. I was expecting maybe a strict press or lighter push press. Nope. Do 5x2 with the top weight you managed last week. I had my doubts I could handle this with how the past few upper body sessions had gone. I mean, I have done this in the past. But generally not in the summer with 90 degree heat. Plan here was to work up in 30lbs jumps again and stick to just one clean until the working sets. Fully prepared for having to use less weight if I things went sideways. I tend to be incredibly nervous with axle clean and press on the first rep with the clean but afterwards I tend to be able to go quicker. And subsequent sets move quicker as well. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen with having done all the sandbag loading Saturday. But here we go. The cleans felt explosive and the first reps of the presses felt good. Just seemed like there was hesitancy with the second reps. I’ve not done clean and press every rep on axle I think in like 3 years and even then it was like only a few sessions. I took a bit longer rests here to make sure that I didn’t miss reps as well as making sure that I got the sweat wiped away and reapplied chalk. Not my best work but quite pleased with myself that I was able to do this. This was quite a bit of work and this wasn’t even going to be the toughest thing of the session as the next thing was the damned zercher yoke into sandbag. I thought I wouldn’t see this until the weekend but guess no better way to start the week off with the most grueling event of the competition. This was what had required some setup as usually I have my yoke in pieces for storage. The plan here was to work up to 3 runs of the contest setup with about 78% of contest weight. I’ll admit I kind of underestimated the suck this event would be with initial prep and I’ve been trying to add weight and hopefully do shorter rests between the two runs to have it match up at the show. Warming up I didn’t use any sandbag. My thinking was one that I already did a lot of picking things up with the axle clean and presses with more weight than the sandbag and two because I didn’t want to move more than one sandbag around with time. This actually seemed to be a good plan to warm up. This also having overhead and the zercher on the same day does solve the issue I was having about shoulders being strained after doing a session with zercher on the proceeding days. This was the most not fun I’ve had all year and likely also the case for the past 9yrs as well. Feeling slow and I definitely had some hesitancy with picking up the bag as trying to not cut my fingers on the asphalt. This was the first time I ever actually finished a run without stopping on these. The elation of doing so was sharply cut by the realization I had to do it two more times. I took about 7 minutes rest to cool down and go for another run. It was about the same but I was breathing even heavier afterwards. Ugh, one more. I took like double the rest I did the first set to try and cool off some more. Really didn’t want to stop or drop the weight. Somehow, this ended up being my best run time wise by about 2.5 seconds. I tried to be smart with placement of the bag on the first drop over the yoke. I’m not familiar with going from that to the next yoke carry so that also had me hesitating at times. I was gasping at the end of this. Apparently I was worrying enough to warrant my mother coming over to check on me in the garage to make sure I was dead. I was not but kind of wanted to be haha. Put that away before finishing up in the garage with supersets for the evening. These were a bit odd as far as supersets I’ve done go. So the first one was a pairing of floor presses with the axle (paused) and sandbag bearhug squats to box. My coach only really wants the event focused stuff filmed but I’m filming everything I can comfortably do to make sure I’m doing things right. The only one I needed to warm up on was the floor press as I felt that with everything else, I was already warmed up to do sandbag box squats. Plan with the squats was 3x12 with the same weight bag and the floor pressing aim being 3x6 at RPE 7.5-8. I was a bit surprised I ended up using as much weight as I did. A bit out of practice here but felt ok. Squats were pretty easy to do. Picking up the bag and getting setup was the most taxing thing really. So much so that I forgot to pull up my knee sleeves on two of the three sets. Left thumb and top of forearm feeling a little numbness I think from the zercher carry stuff compressing the radial nerve. Last thing was superset of dips with tempo and ez curl bar curls. I kind of stopped with dips as felt like too much stress on shoulders the last time I did them but this was just bodyweight and slow so should be fine. A little different in that not being done based on number or reps but doing reps in a time limit (30 seconds). So just focusing on the tempo numbers and worrying about actual reps later when I watch back the video. So dips were fine. I know my biceps do not have great endurance. I also tend to not train them directly as worries about overtraining things with all the different stuff that stresses those muscles and joints. This was apparent with how not happy they were with rep work that the 15 reps got much harder each set. Ended up mentally doing the bit by bit method of just thinking I’m doing 3x5 for one set in my head. I got through it. Eventually got everything away before eating dinner and then stretching out. It was a hot one and I ended up drinking a good bit of water besides just my bcaa gallon drink. This should be the toughest workout of the week from what I’m seeing on paper but who knows.