August 11, 2025 – Week 12, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Clean and Push Press
off pads
26x10
56x8
86x5
13” wagon wheels
116x3
146x2
176x1
206x1
236x1
266x0

Zercher Yoke/Sandbag Carry & Loads (49”, with run backs)
230x33’/112x33’/230x33’/112x33’
320x33’/112x33’/320x33’/112x33’
410x33’/112x33’/410x33’/112x33’
500x33’/305x33’
500x33’/305x33’

Paused Axle Floor Presses (2 seconds)/Sandbag Squats to Box with Extension (24”)
80x8
120x6
170x4
210x2
250x6/225x8
250x6/225x8

Dips (2-0-2-0 tempo)/EZ Curl Bar Curls
bwx60 seconds (15)/72x15
bwx60 seconds (13)/72x15

Stretching

Comments: Getting a little antsy with training this close to contest. That is me thinking about how most programming I’ve done has been. But I need to trust the process. I also have to remember there were some contests where I signed up the week of and didn’t deload at all when I first started out lol. Weight about the same as last week consistently just under 260lbs for a few weeks now. It has been only two weeks with new programming but it does seem to be similar to how training had been with Josh Bryant in 2015-2016. But with more understanding of strongman event performance. I had limited my thinking with my training when it does seem like more of a full body stuff might be to my benefit. Getting the sessions for this week had me panic a bit. Not quite to the level of anxiety attack but I definitely had to calm myself down and had intestinal issues for the rest of the afternoon. I’m not used to having things be this intense the week before competing. I asked for help and I’m going to trust the process to the best of my abilities. I did need some foam rolling for my right quad but otherwise it seemed to be fine foam rolling everything out. Neck rehab stuff was fine and did mobility stuff. Axle clean and press again. Plan was to do 3x1 with 10-20lbs more than last week. My coach had said my pressing from Week 1 to Week 2 was a ton better. And with how things had felt those two weeks with pressing, I was feeling like myself. But I was thinking it was best to be cautious and my aim was to just go for 266lbs and if that felt really good go up 5lbs a set for the three singles. And while nervous, this didn’t feel impossible to me in my head with how the past two weeks were. But working up I was having this nagging sensation of déjà vu with the axle. Little bit of dry mouth like when I had the workout where I was aiming to do 270lbs and I missed it twice and rage quit the workout. The weight was just feeling heavier with the clean and catch. 236lbs moved like 256lbs had for me last week. Which isn’t great. But told myself to full send as is the saying for 266lbs. I got it to the shoulders and it took a bit to get my balance and then I went for the press and it was terrible. Went out in front. Like those previous two weeks of work didn’t happen. I really hate it when my pressing reverts to this. I didn’t bother giving it another attempt as I knew the worst thing would be to keep trying and get myself more frustrated and worked up. I know from past experience that I can survive a missed rep the week before and still do ok at contest. I felt embarrassed with failing here. I texted my coach to advise what happened and asked how I should proceed with the workout. The miss didn’t take a lot out of me physically but mentally it had. And considering the next thing was the thing that requires the most mental fortitude to complete and setup at home, I needed some guidance or I was going to just quit the session, eat and go to bed and maybe not do anything the rest of the week. I was told to skip doing any more axle stuff and move on to the zercher and sandbag stuff. Now before the plan was altered, it was to be working up to one set of 545lbs on the yoke and then 305lbs sandbag and do the contest setup. With how things went, I was advised to drop the yoke weight down to a little less than last week but to keep the sandbag to the planned 305lbs and break it up into 2 sets if necessary. That did end up being necessary. One was that this was a pain to do and setup. My abs felt like cramping up on me and I did the sets as I did them more to get me to have something to get me to move and get out of the mental funk before the top set. I did some picks with the 225lbs and 265lbs sandbag (2 reps each) to have hopefully the sandbag part not so rough. When I’m stressed, it is much harder for me to block out sensory stuff. Like one of my neighbors smoking a cigar and another with their untrained dog visiting another neighbor that had me on edge. Really tough to fight down doubts and negative thoughts when I’m stressed out and I was kind of bargaining with myself that I could stop at anytime. So finally worked up the gumption to do it and started moving. The pick was slower than I’d have liked but it felt comfortable for 500lbs. The sandbag was a bear. 40lbs over last week and that thing just sapped the life out of me carrying that to load. Like I had to extend more once I got there and I didn’t have the energy to try and place it like I try to do. I’m lucky that it landed in a way that it wasn’t pinning down the yoke. I had to take a breather. This was more self-imposed as I feel my conditioning has improved in the two weeks. It was more getting enough strength back so that I felt like I could do the sandbag again as I felt that the front carry with the yoke I was ok to go again. I’d rather treat these as two separate sets then to do the zercher twice and then rest before doing the sandbag. The rest between was only about 70 seconds which isn’t a lot compared to rest I’ve needed before with this thing when I couldn’t manage full run. Zercher part was fine but the sandbag was really rough. The pick took forever and I couldn’t really carry as high as the first set. It was a slow death march and I was worried I was going to lose the bag forward with one errant step. I finally got to the crossbar and had to hunker down in the lap position for a few beats before going for the extension. Ugh, this was tough. But it was done. I reported back to my coach and she indicated that it was good a finished it and that I should be ok with the rest of the workout. Supersets for the evening to come to a close again. Same as they have been but volume reduced. Two sets vs three sets. Paused axle floor presses for 2x6 with 8lbs more and the sandbag squats to box were same weight and reps as last time. I wasn’t concerned with the sandbag stuff but I wasn’t sure with the floor pressing after how my pressing overhead had been. Things did feel a little challenging here but I managed to get the reps. I feel like second set actually felt smoother. Nothing really to say about the squats with sandbag other than I think if I was using a bigger bag or firmer bag that I’d be able to hold higher on the extension. It doesn’t feel safe to do ankle extension and keep my balance. Last thing was superset of dips with tempo and ez curl bar curls. Still bodyweight with dips. I struggled with 40 seconds last week for 3 sets but I guess going to have to suck it up to 60 seconds for 2 sets. That was where I was going to need to be focused. Curls I was told to do 2x15 with same weight as last week so I wasn’t thinking that would be too bad really. I think knowing how rough the dips were going to be from last time tempered my expectations and I managed to have less of an issue with finishing the sets as intended. First set I was good but second set I had to take two little breathers to catch myself and keep from failing reps. Curls were a bit tougher than I was expecting, I guess feeling fatigue. I put stuff away and ate dinner before stretching. I feel like these three weeks that I’m crunching in a full contest prep in them. But I am seeing that some increased frequency is letting me work on some things that I may be missing with more spread out philosophy.