September 22, 2025 – Week 4, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Strict Presses (5-0-5-0 tempo)
30x3
60x3
93x6
93x6
93x6
93x6
93x6

Paused 12” Log Incline Bench Presses (3 seconds)
90x3
130x3
165x10
165x10
165x10

Alternating Dumbbell Floor Presses
70’sx30 seconds
70’sx30 seconds
70’sx30 seconds

Half Kneeling Neutral Grip Dumbbell Presses/Assisted Spanish Squats
55x8/8 – bwx40 seconds
55x8/8 – bwx40 seconds
55x8/8 – bwx40 seconds

Deadstop Pendlay Rows/Walking Lunges
135x4 
205x8 -- bwx25/25
205x8 -- bwx25/25
205x8 -- bwx25/25

Stretching

Comments: The weekend hadn’t been great with whatever I irritated in my left hip/inner thigh and that partly meant that I didn’t really do anything besides chores on Sunday. No walking and seeing if rest, antiflammatories and soft tissue work helped as having a little pity party about it certainly wasn’t. It had not really improved much and with things being how something tightens up and then the discomfort just wanders around like the ball in pong. I also had to take allergy meds as started having reaction to something in the air that had my right air become inflamed. Weight stayed about the same from last week. I was nervous about this week’s training as I was worried that I’d have to make adjustments to work around discomfort. Monday session is about the least amount of lower body stuff of the three sessions in the week. Work this week is going to be rough since this ended up being the week where I scheduled all those appointments from when I was made to clean up my dashboard. Most didn’t answer so that helped a bit but can’t expect every day to be like that. It was time to train. Foam rolling I didn’t need as much on my lower legs as I did go hard on them with the massager yesterday. The left was more tight than right for a change. Quads needed it the most. Neck rehab felt fine and dandy. I wasn’t too sure if I should do the lower body stretching for hips, ankles and knees but I did and those didn’t bother or irritate things so that I guess is a good sign. But I’ll have to see how loading movements are as there were moments of discomfort over the weekend with getting into and out of seated position. From there it was axle strict press. The tempo bumped back up to 5-0-5-0 for the 5x6. I guess I made it look too easy last week. I was advised that I could increase the weight up to 115lbs if it was too easy. It was definitely not going to be too easy as taking 2 seconds off each way made 90lbs feel easier than 76lbs for same reps. I knew it would be iffy to add weight to what I did last week with the time under tension increased but I felt like it being suggested with that weight range that I could try and sneak on a few pounds here. I could definitely tell that my triceps (especially the right) were feeling Saturday. This was challenging and I got that tendon soreness sensation in the left shoulder on these with this increased effort. It was definitely a tough one here but I got through it without having to go to 3 times the rest (but not quite 2 times). From there moving on to the paused log work. Same pauses and same suggested weight but now 3x10. The lockout was better but I was advised to control the eccentric and not plop like I’ve been doing. I think I’ve been doing that because with the pauses and number of reps that I was doing that so it wasn’t as taxing on me. Well not allowed to be sneaky here and make this be work the whole time. First set was fine and I felt like the second set was as well but then it got really challenging by the end with last rep being quite a struggle to lockout. Just fatigue where felt like triceps were just done. I took longer rest before going for the last set. The increased reps and the better control definitely taking it out of me. Third set went slightly better than the second set as far as the end of the set but perhaps not as solid with holding the lockouts for a count I guess as I had been the previous two sets. It hadn’t felt like I was shortchanging here but video suggests otherwise. Moving right along into the garage for more pressing. Alternating floor presses with dumbbells again. Initially it had me repeating last week but then clarification to do just 30 seconds sets with a heavy weight. I didn’t really want to deal with plateloaded handles for these again and since I was getting like 19 reps on the incline dumbbell squeeze stuff, I figured I could handle the 70lbs dumbbells here. Just a bit harder to get into position from the floor so I did wear wrist wraps tight to add support on getting from lap to shoulders. As has been the case, first set of these tends to be strongest and then other sets becomes tough to keep up the pace. It was possible that I could fatigue on these and not be able to lockout weights by the end but that thankfully didn’t happen. That concluded the regular pressing now the superset stuff with upper body and lower body. So as the same as last week with half kneeling presses to start. Reps cut to 8 and told to do 50-55lbs here. Aim being to also have the lockouts be solid/robotic like other things have been. I didn’t have balance issues this time around here on any of the reps and it felt fine throughout. This wasn’t that different. There were changes with the other half which was the Spanish squats. These had not been great and did some troubleshooting during the session with Ms. Funk as trying to get these to be something I could do. The changes required me to move the setup from using my weighted down dip stand to the power rack outside as using more band tension for the knee traction and thus needing more space and more weight to anchor down. The other part was adding in a rope assist as I’m not very strong here and apparently bodyweight is too much for me with maintaining the right posture. I was advised to wear my lifting shoes with heels as well to see if that did anything (not really). It is possible I have some ankle mobility issues that are affecting my knees as they feel fine when doing most things. They didn’t click until the last set of the session and I kind of wished I had more sets (I’m sick) so I could get that feeling ingrained more. But I guess a positive besides finally getting them to work for me was no issues in the hip/inner thigh. I wasn’t so sure that would be the case with the last thing. This again was Pendlay rows followed by walking lunges. Rows going up in weight with reps dropped and lunges increasing in volume. I started cooking dinner at this point. I was not thrilled about testing out tender parts on 150 reps of lunges. With it getting darker quicker, it didn’t make sense to try and setup outside in the street for the lunges for safety and practicality reasons. So I did them in the garage which would be a few reps and turn around and keep going. Rows felt fine and strong here. I was thankful that there was no discomfort in the legs/hips on that first rep of 150 with the lunges. First set of them I just did reps as they came but the other two sets I did 5 each way before turning and that made things a little easier to track as down and back would be 10 strides. I had not been terribly sweaty until these had to be done. Survived the session and put stuff away while my supper cooked. Ate and then stretched.