September 10, 2025 – Week 2, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Long Bar Deadlifts (straps)
145x5
195x4
235x3
285x2
325x1
365x1
EMOM
405x3
405x3
405x3
405x3
405x3
405x3
405x3
405x3
405x3
405x3
405x3
405x3

Safety Squat Bar Front Box Squats (24”)
65x6
115x5
155x4
205x3
245x2
285x4
285x4
285x4
285x4
285x4
285x4
285x4
285x4

Paused Barbell Hip Thrusts (2 seconds)/Pull Ups/Prone Band Hamstring Tantrums
217x3/bwx3
275x12/bwx15/(2)lbx20 seconds
275x12/bwx13/(2)lbx20 seconds
275x12/bwx11/(2)lbx20 seconds

Sandbag Over Shoulders
175x40 seconds
175x40 seconds
175x40 seconds

Stretching

Comments: Oddly enough, despite feeling sore from training, something seem to be recovering quicker then they were when I wasn’t really pushing training after the competition. Namely my skin. All the scabs are gone at this point when last week I still had a fair amount that would crack and bleed if I did too much. Work had me not get assigned stuff at least for yesterday and today due to needing to get overdo stuff in compliance as well as realizing that giving me work while I was out of the country didn’t help matters when I got back. Thankfully my right ankle seemed to be ok and not feeling like it did late in the evening on Monday. There was some tension in my back and hips that popped up as I was starting to get warmed up for training so that wasn’t ideal. Foam rolling needed but mostly for the tops of my quads due to how sore they still are. Neck rehab stuff was good. Mobility stuff felt decent. I was a little worried that something would flair up something like ankle or back but it did not. I made sure to put on the fans in the garage today as while not super hot out right now, I did build up quite a sweat last week with this session when I didn’t really need to change my shirt once on Monday that week (same this week). This workout was going to be heavier and more compared to last week’s session. Long bar deadlift setup for now. Indication was to be trying to pull fast off the floor with the flexing bar. 405lbs for 12x3 with EMOM was going to be tough. I did adjust the pulling setup as I noticed that the bar extender sleeves don’t fit fully on the bar sleeves so there was a gap and it looked like enough space for me to put my 25lbs bumper plates and still have the sleeves on as far as they will go. And I was right. My hope was this would make the bar flex feel more like deadlift bar and not so much that several inches of slack need to be taken out. That was an issue with the setup last week and I’ve been a bit leery about trying to just rip up the bar when that much flex considering hamstring injuries doing that on this kind of bar setup. I feel like this was a better approximation. But I’m kind of doing this for funsies. I felt strong initially but I could tell this was going to be a slog as I was already wondering what set I was on when I hadn’t gotten to the halfway point. Quite sweaty and I was not feeling fast in the second half. Lower back was feeling a lot of fatigue and I was breathing a little heavy at the end there compared to past deadlift EMOM style stuff since working with Ms. Funk. That was done finally and I could move on to the ssb front box squats. This was changed from the 6x6 to 8x4 and the weight suggested a big increase. I had not been too sure what style of squat was expected I think as I assumed box squat with sit back and I wasn’t quite controlling the eccentric to the box with moving fast and because my knees were not cooperating. Notes had that I should be focusing on having my knees track forward and not sit back so much to keep more upright posture like with my heel elevated ssb squats on Saturday. It is possible that there is some ankle/hip mobility issues here but we’ll see if the form tips are satisfactory with me getting things right. I used the same box and setup but with focus of bending at the knees and hips rather than the sit back. Knees felt a lot better this time around. I was tempted to just do 295lbs since it would be just 40-50lbs jumps on plate-quarter-plate but I thought better of it considering the deadlifting took a bit out of me and who knows how going up 20lbs on squats and doing that many sets with form changes would feel. There were some balance issues with walking out the weight at times (hard to see with the pad) but these felt comfortable and I probably could’ve done 295lbs for these sets today. I was realizing at this point this was going to be a long night (I got a late start to training) and tried to take appropriate rest to recover and get fluids in me but also be mindful of getting stuff ready for the next thing. The next thing being that unusual triset. It had surprised me a bit with how I felt pretty drained after doing it last week and not too sure why. This was the same thing but more. Hip thrusts being 3x12 with the 2 second pauses with the top weight I hit last week. I figured I’d do just one warm up set like I did with the pull-ups last week to try and expedite things here. Also trying to figure out a way to get the discomfort to feel less on my pelvis such as wearing my rehband belt. I was only successful in that endeavor on the last set with placement and was just a little off on the first and second set. These didn’t feel so bad (besides the pressure) while doing them but I guess these take a bit out of me. Pull-ups the second exercise. Still 3 sets of max reps with the note to improve on the total volume from last time. I had done 36 reps last time so goal was more than that. I wasn’t too keen on that with my biceps feeling a little sore on the acclimation set of three reps. But I guess that was just a liar for me as I did manage to get 15 reps on the first set. So off to a good start. Second set I struggled to match what I did last time. As long as I got at least 9 reps on the third set, I’d improve on the volume of last time. This I ended up getting 11 reps here so 3 reps added over last time. The last bit was the band tantrums. Increased time to 20 seconds and told to go even faster. Will do my best here. Second set I must have missed the timer but I was able to get 20 seconds guessing I had done the time. I did not feel well after finishing up those trisets. I had felt like I needed a bit of time to recover before doing the last thing last week but I had felt it was partly with having what felt like I was fighting a slight cold or allergies with that. This felt a lot more severe. Not that I was having cold symptoms but I was feeling woozy and not up for doing anything else. This took longer than even when I had to take a long break doing that zercher and sandbag medley multiple times. The closest I can recall this was when I was doing a bunch of truck pull simulation practice like 15yrs ago and I just felt gassed out and didn’t feel like doing anything for like an hour. Just took my time putting stuff away and getting air out of my stomach and eventually not feeling like I would retch if I bent over. This took a lot longer than I was expecting and I was considering just skipping this last thing so I could get on with my evening. But I toughed it out and did it. Sandbag over shoulder with the 175lbs bag. Three sets but now 40 seconds. I was advised to try and be more violent/explosive here. My lack of power could be related to just my leverages with being so tall but I’ve noticed before that I tend to have low explosive endurance with things like this. Which is good that this is being done even if still at best 4 months out from a show that would have something like this. Last week I had been wondering if I had an allergic reaction to something (like the detergent we had to use in Ireland) as I felt like I had an abrasion on my neck. I forgot that doing this with the canvas does scratch up my neck and shoulders haha. I decided I’d alternate sides every rep here. I was happy I got an extra two reps with 10 additional seconds added. I was able to stick to my planned rest for the second set but realized I needed a bit more time to recover for the last one (and it showed). This session kick my ass but it felt satisfying to be done. Ate dinner and stretched before getting some sleep.