August 9, 2025 – Week 11, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Sandbag Swings
60x8
60x8

Sandbag Tosses (13’6”, 10’ away)
40x0
40x1
45x1
50x1
45x1/50x1/55x0
45x1/50x0
45x1/50x1/55x0
45x1/50x1/55x0

Yoke/Power Stairs (17”)
250x50’/50’ – 229x3
350x25’/25’ -- 274x1
450x25’/25’ -- 329x1
550x25’/25’ -- 374x1
650x50’/50’ -- 429x3 in 55.53 seconds
650x50’/50’ -- 429x3 in 46.47 seconds

Seated Safety Squat Bar Goodmornings (19” box)
65x5
115x10
115x10
115x10

Dumbbell Walking Lunges (on turf)/Chest Supported Dumbbell Rows
bwx15/15 – 50’sx20
20’sx25/25 – 75’sx20
20’sx25/25 – 75’sx20

MAG Grip Pulldowns (drop sets)
150x12/120x12/90x12
150x12/120x12/90x12

Stretching

Comments: Plan today was to get out to train earlier so that in the event I did need help it was there. I only overslept by like 30 minutes this time around as I did make sure I got to bed a little earlier. There wasn’t an immediate need to be out there really as this was similar to last week where I could do everything solo. It does appear that driving out will be annoying for a bit as they continue with construction where there is already the most congestion on the drive out. But it wasn’t as bad I guess as last week. I got there about an hour earlier than last week but apparently I missed the memo for today. There was hardly anyone there and the throwing setup was taken down as I got there. Which was fine as I’d need to adjust it to my height anyways (it was the two yokes setup that requires multiple people to setup). It was also a meeting for the bikers so the one parking lot was unusable and it was really loud. Foam rolling and neck rehab before some mobility stuff. My right calf was really tight and needed a lot of foam rolling. Starting out with bag toss stuff. I setup the toss tower setup I used last time on the other side of the gym so that I didn’t have to carry the sandbags to the other side as well as to be as far away from the bikers so I didn’t have to have the sounds in my ears or potentially get interrupted by gawkers. Even on the other sides of the structure, the sounds of the bikes was deafening. So as with last time, priming things with swings with the 60lbs bag. These felt fine and dandy. Seemed to get my hips and knees warmed up. From there it was on to bag toss. Calvin wasn’t here this week so I didn’t have the luxury of having another 50lbs bag to make it 52.5lbs like last time. The plan was to do the first three bags for two runs again and try to do them with the backwards walk back rather than me going to the bags and chucked them closer and then going. To work on efficiency. And if that didn’t work, go back to what was working. I spent time Friday evening watching different bag throw videos to try and figure out what works. Counting my steps didn’t seem to work too well and was kind of distracting (I wasn’t close enough first toss) so I abandoned that and just went by peripheral sight. I managed to do the walk backwards for singles with 40lbs, 45lbs and 50lbs before setting up the series. The 45lbs and the 50lbs were a bit iffy. So without the option to do 52.5lbs (I mean, I guess I could’ve put two 5lbs sandbags and 2.5lbs weight into the 40lbs) I did 45lbs, 50lbs and 55lbs. First attempt I did the backwards walk with the first two bags but reverted to the chuck and then toss attempt with 55lbs as 50lbs was very close to missing. About 8” shy of clearing. Setup again and got just the 45lbs with the backwards walk and throw and missed 50lbs. Moving on to plan b then. 45lbs was going over consistently with the backwards walk and toss but not 50lbs. So I’d do the backwards walk and toss for 45lbs and then pick up both the 50lbs and 55lbs to bring closer to the setup and toss from there in my own time. 50lbs went over with clearance and gave 55lbs two attempts. Second attempt was actually closer to going over than first (like 4” shy). Decided I’d give it one more try at the setup this way. On this run, the 50lbs didn’t go over smoothly so there was some hesitation going to the 55lbs as I was not 100% sure it actually went over. 55lbs was about as close as my second attempt on the previous series attempt. I hesitated again after that but decided to give it another shot. That was my worst toss of the day and I could tell that I was at my limit. I don’t seem to be consistently hot with bag toss when pushing the heavier end of things week to week. I know I can hit those first three bags in the competition series but the metric conversions don’t make it smooth 1:1 with weights here. But I can consistently get a little heavier than the first two bags so that is still something. Put this away as I got the yoke into power stairs setup. Trying to not let not being able to meet expectations on bag toss effect the rest of the session or let it have me think I was going to have underperformance on everything else. Once again, pretty much alone in the gym by this point. Which was good I guess in that yoke was being used while I was doing bag toss. Plan for this was 15lbs more on both implements and just 2 sets of full competition style run. My knees were still recovering from the bruises of last time. I used a heavy band on the box setup for loading the power stair in an attempt to keep it from tipping when deloading each rep. Trying to take the tips/cues from my coach here. I already had some experience with the foot placement on the zercher runs so that just actively trying to do that here. With the power stairs, it is me trying to remember what works. It has only been this time and the previous training for 2023 SC Nationals where I’ve had to do power stairs over 400lbs. Usually I can just power through with my height any which way but as it gets up there I’m finding I need to actually use some technique. So the advise was to be a bit more forward of the weight so that picking it up that moving forward would help with swinging the weight and momentum. Seemed the right move warming up over the sets. Finally working up to the runs. I don’t feel the fastest on yoke (even warming up) but I think part of it is that I know I have to control drop and return and not increase distance. I do feel like there was less hesitancy on the repick. I ran into a little issue on the power stairs that wasn’t present last time. The pick up was easier with the swing forward but now it was hitting the box and lifting it up as I went. No issues the first rep but then the second rep the plates got stuck on the rubber top of the box and was being lifted up. So I essentially had to hold it there and jostle around until I could navigate around the rubber and get the rep. That was a bit exhausting and I had to take a moment to collect myself before going for the last rep. That had sapped me a bit and I pretty much ended up just deadlifting and duck walking it to completion. I was close to the time limit here with that. In the moment, do what you got to do if it happens at competition. My hope for the second run was to not have this happen again. Second run on yoke portion was much the same. I thankfully didn’t have the same issue with the power stairs and managed to shave 9 seconds off that time. Also feel like my knees didn’t take as much of a beating compared to last week. But that could be from doing one less set lol. I let stuff out so that I could try and move through the rest of the stuff for the session. Save putting stuff away when I was done done and digesting my nutrients. Next up was seated gms with the ssb. Same as last week with it being 3x10. Suggested was 110lbs. I went with 115lbs because that was just putting 25’s on the ssb so easier plate math. I didn’t have issues with figuring out how to get under the bar or with squishing anything important on the movement either. Could definitely tell there was fatigue from the previous stuff this week with this movement. I think it also started to click for me that this isn’t just lower back movement. I had an inkling about that with what was sore foam rolling on Monday this week. But I could actively feel my heels and glutes stabilizing the load and reversing the motion. Then on to the thing I was dreading from this session; walking lunges into chest supported dumbbell rows. The rows were going to be fine and dandy. Easy, active rest honestly in comparison to the walking lunges. 40 paces last time was not fun per set. Now it was up to 50 paces. I was genuinely worried that my legs would short circuit in the middle of the second set. I did some testing mobility wise with my knees to make sure they were good to go as last week I needed to do a few reps to even tolerate the movement. It was taking a bit for me to catch my breath to then do the rows each set. And those were comfortable to do even with the added reps. Of all the things I did this week (and last week) I’d say this was the least enjoyable thing I did. I took advantage of the big floor fan between sets to cool down. It was thankfully a much cooler day as well but sunny enough that I could dry out my shirts and melt the ice bottles I had for some very cool water to drink. Pulldowns with a neutral grip with triple drop set to end the day. Change from last week being more reps so 36 total vs 30 each set with it being a dozen reps per set. I decided to just stick to the same weights as last time with 30lbs drops and it taking about 15 seconds to do that and start the next set. Unlike last week, the second set actually went better than the first set. I think I was still recovering from the lunges on that first set as I was feeling pretty gassed by the end. But second set I felt a bit fresher and maybe knew what I was getting myself into. Finally the work was done and I downed my protein shake before putting all the weights away in the gym. Long drive home and then stretched out. Two weeks until I’m competing. Hopefully it works out.