August 18, 2025 – Week 13, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Clean and Push Press
off pads
26x10
56x8
86x5
13” wagon wheels
116x3
146x1
clean every rep, EMOM
176x2
176x2
176x2
176x2

Zercher Yoke
340x33’
340x33’

Sandbag Carry & Loads (49”)
175x33’
175x33’

Dips (2-0-2-0 tempo)
bwx6
bwx6
bwx6

Banded Triceps Pressdowns
lbx20
lbx20

Stretching

Comments: I didn’t feel good after Saturday session. I could tell I needed to isolate and decompress as just hearing the sounds outside were stressing me out (I was considering mowing the lawn as something to do). I then spent all day Sunday inside just doing not much of anything besides getting affairs in order for the coming week as well as taking care of things from the previous week. Weight went up a bit which I wasn’t too surprised about considering I ate more than usual Saturday and didn’t do as much activity. I shied away from really doing anything Sunday as I was stressed and knew I needed to relax. Little bit of plantar fasciitis in the right foot as well as some coldness in the lower leg on that side so potentially some nerve compression. So not exactly great. But I was feeling a little better and not retching at the idea of even seeing myself lifting in my own videos. Just trying to rest up and did soft tissue work Sunday. I wasn’t too sure what this week would bring as far as training. I feel shame and annoyance when I can’t meet expectations and planned sessions. But I know that isn’t healthy and know I need to get some rest to process and take a step back so as not to cannibalize my self-worth. I know initially the plan was two light workouts before I left for keeping loose. But I wasn’t sure if that was still going to be the plan after coming apart Saturday and if the plan would be to do anything really. I was going to at least do my foam rolling and neck rehab stuff. But it does seem I did have workouts to do this week so I wasn’t forgotten. Due to feeling depressed and not really sure if I was even going to leave my house until I left for Ireland, I didn’t bring home a sandbag to do stuff like I had planned so there was some alterations immediately to the plan. Starting off with the usual foam rolling (right quad needed it a lot) and then neck rehab stuff and finishing up with mobility. The initial plan had been some light bag toss but didn’t have one and I was advised not to throw something else (like a kettlebell) as that could throw off my groove for the show. It was only to be 3x2 so not much. So moving on to axle clean and press again. This had not been good for me last week so there was still some anxiety here. Plan was to do 4x2 with 175-185lbs with a minute rest (clean and press each rep). So I went with 176lbs as would be same jumps as last week. I was initially looking at wearing no support gear but decided made sense to wear my belts here so that I had something for the axle to gain purchase on and not need chalk as well. Also to provide some support for my lower back. Let me say I’m not a fan of clean multiple reps when using the wagon wheels with my current setup of having to land on crash pads and then roll into position. I ended up slamming the axle into my right shin on the first set and that smarted. I didn’t really want to do a timer here but my pacing with going to touching the front door and coming back essentially had me doing EMOM pacing which was fine enough. I’m not sure if my pressing is awake and ready but it did feel like the cleans were comfortable for the weight I was doing and that my hip drive was strong and mobility was good. Second rep of the third set I had a bit of a hop back on the push press which wasn’t ideal so I think I overcompensated on the fourth with launching it forward and had to kind of follow it to catch it. Just a little liquid chalk since it was about 20 degrees cooler than last week. The zercher yoke and sandbag stuff was next. I was not expecting these to be back for another session before I flew out of the country so I had taken my yoke apart for storing (my mother wants to move some furniture while I’m gone). I do have a much thinner crossbar yoke in the backyard that is 90lbs empty but I figured it was best to not bother with that one (might dig into my arms more) so I got the yoke setup again. The plan here was just light runs and having the zercher and sandbag portions separate exercises. I was initially going to do them together but reread the training notes and split them up. I ended up going about 10lbs lighter on the yoke stuff since it was easier to just slap 45’s on each post. Just got set and go. A little bit of a jolt on the body just going at it but moving with it was fine. Just made myself take a little rest between the sets so as it was being treated as two sets. I took the weights off but left the yoke out there for the sandbag. The programming only indicated to do sandbag carry for same distance but I figured I’d still set the height to chuck the bag over. Ended up using 25lbs less since don’t have a 200lbs bag and rather not go over a good bit with 225lbs. The bag carry took longer than the yoke runs because of getting the pick setup. Though I imagine if I started with my hands under, it would be closer. I didn’t set my feet under the floppy bag as likely not getting that kind of luxury and also a bit closer to the sandball pick. So that was that for the event specific stuff and into the garage to finish up with triceps stuff. Moving right into the tempo dips. This time not for time and just number of reps so 3x6. Wrists and shoulders a bit achy but this was tolerable and fine. I did take a little longer rest wise to put some stuff away between sets. Last thing was band triceps. Indication was for 2x20 and to be fast and explosive. So that is what I did. Maybe a little too unfocused the first set as the excess band from where I was grabbing did give me a little testes tap for my efforts and managed to not do that again on the second set. It was kind of nice getting a workout done at a reasonable hour so I could eat and stretched and then get to bed at a reasonable hour. One more session and likely right before I leave on a jet plane.