October 11, 2025 – Week 6, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Heel Elevated Safety Squat Bar Squats
65x10
115x8
155x6
205x4
245x2
275x1
305x3
305x3
305x3
305x3
305x3
305x3

Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (left side only)
37x5
49x3
65x3
84x3
97x2
108x2
120x1
140x5
140x5
140x5
140x5

Yoke
200x50’
300x50’
400x50’
EMOM
500x50’
500x50’
500x50’
500x50’
500x50’
500x50’
500x50’
500x50’

Split Squat Pulses/Incline Dumbbell Squeeze Bench Presses/Ab Wheel
20’sx40 seconds/40 seconds – 75’sx12 – bwx10
20’sx40 seconds/40 seconds – 75’sx12 – bwx10
20’sx40 seconds/40 seconds – 75’sx12 – bwx10

Rower
1000m in 3 minutes 53.30 seconds

Stretching

Comments: It has been a rough week with adjustments to schedule change with work on top of just the general sense of stress/dread with the world. Medical issues with some family members add to that. I was feeling really low energy Friday. Considering how much coughing, sneezing and hacking I hear there, it is probably a good thing that is really all I feel. Why important I got shots before coming in. The past two Saturday’s I’ve trained at home and this one could be maybe done at home but I felt it was best to go out and train. I took Dayquil before bed the night before hoping that would help and I’d feel rested. I was also leery about my right knee feeling a little stiff. I guess one of the positives with having to get up earlier is that me sleeping in only had me 30 minutes behind my usual wake up time for work on the previous schedule so I wasn’t missing out on a lot of day here. Driving out to train was fine. Some people training events and others just doing stuff at the gym. At least when I started. Most doing strongman stuff left by the time I got started actual training. Foam rolling was needed on the lower legs but not as much as it has sometimes needed. But more than it has been this week at least in comparison. It was feeling actual cool in the gym today but I warmed up when I was actually lifting and needed to turn on fans lol. Moved on to the neck rehab stuff and that was good. Not as “releasing” as it has felt other sessions. I was a little uncertain with my shoulders and upper back as they had felt a bit stiff on my left side. Did some stuff for my ankles and knees (and my hips/abs) before doing stuff with stretches for the hips, ankles and knees and dead hang for decompression. Then on to training. Still doing the ssb squats with heels elevated and atg style. The setup at the gym is a good bit better than what I was doing at home. The better unrack makes a world of difference. But noticing the weight being added to these on top of the other lower body effort stuff. First week had been low 200’s and now at low 300’s 5 weeks later. Plan was same weight as last week but increasing the volume from 6x2 to 6x3. Shouldn’t be bad. I did same jumps warming up but I did more reps in my warming up to make sure I was feeling good in my knees. There was stiffness in the knee joints but I felt more solid with the base I have here vs at home. Like last week, the first set I had to take a moment to collect myself after the first rep with the pressure and then I seemed to feel better as I went on these. With squats done, it was on to pressing. But a change up here from axle push press. A little relief in that regard as axle push press twice in the same week was getting exhausting. But not actually an easy change here with going to circus dumbbell clean and presses. I’ve not touched a circus dumbbell since March 2023 so looking at over 2.5yrs away from the implement. The reason this is coming into play is due to the shift in contest plan. The show has an odd event for overhead in that it is athlete choice between axle, log or dumbbell. Once you commit to implement, that is what you have to do and reps is the name of the game. Even with not touching circus dumbbell in a good bit compared to other overhead, I figure gamesmanship wise this is the better event for me to get reps and recover from. So this session was to see where I was and find a working weight. Advised for this session to only use my strong side and do it as I would competition style (jerk and not push press). I have my own circus dumbbell at home but figured it was best to use what was here at the gym as likely that will be closer to competition specs anyways. There is a substantial collection here so I ended up weighing all of them minus one that was oversized (didn’t use it) to see what made sense warming up. Things were feeling good for the most part and I was pleased how my leg drive was doing here and catching the weight overhead. Shoulder/traps not quite used to the pressure. All the dumbbells were a bit off weight wise from what was indicated except for my one friend’s dumbbell. I used a normal dumbbell with a fat grip on it as an inbetween weight warming up as well. Plan here was find a good set of 5 reps and do that four times. Didn’t want to mess up like I did that first week doing just 3x5 instead of 4x5. My hope was to use my friend’s dumbbell (120lbs empty) as it looked like the most competition specific. I was prepared for that to be my working weight as I’ve felt like pressing has been down a good bit and last time I did this I got 140x5 at contest when I was feeling strong in training getting reps with 177lbs. 120lbs flew up and I said screw it, going for 140lbs. A bit of jump compared to the warming up I was doing here but that was the dumbbell with end caps on it and I didn’t really want to deal with loading and unloading it with my wrench tighten clamps. 140lbs would be a fantastic place to start. 10lbs under contest (or 20lbs if I come in fat) at 18 weeks out. This is also where Mike Jenkins would start on his Arnold prep when they had the circus dumbbell at like 240ish back then. I got set for the first set and went at it. First two reps felt automatic but the third I definitely showed I was out of practice here and had to pause a bit to get weight settled and then go. Fatigue got me a little and had to set it down rather than touch and go before starting the fourth rep. I was able to touch and go those two but they were tougher. Second set went about as perfect as I could do with my abilities and that had me happy. Getting 5 reps in under 30 seconds is a great pace. Thinking I’d get that on the next set, I had an issue with the first rep with having to pause to get stable and then the lockout was not great and I lost control bringing it back down so couldn’t touch and go. After that hiccup, I did manage to get the other four reps to be like the second set. Last set was apparent fatigue was setting in as lockouts on the first two reps were a little bit tougher and then I didn’t seem to have the first attempt at the third rep racked right and had to do it twice to get it up there. Had to be a bit more deliberate on the remaining two reps to get those without issue. There is big room for improvement here but I’m quite pleased this is the starting point here considering time I have and seemingly in a better spot on this than I was 2.5yrs ago. Another change to the session from here. It has been two supersets that followed the squats and overhead. Not this time. Not done yoke since Worlds at end of August so not that far removed but I wasn’t expecting this much so soon. Not weight wise but just doing 8 sets of 50’ EMOM style. The plan to be getting my legs back into it. I have to hope not much lost here with doing all those damn lunges and such. One of the things that I would be able to check on here was if a split stance start was actually viable. In the past, I’ve not done it as it seemed to not be a power position for me but that was me trying to do it as if I was in the middle of my stride. Having seen that I tend to put one foot slightly in front of the other when I’ve done box jumps and taking with someone about it at the gym that having just a slight stagger could actually be the key. At these weights, it did feel like less a knee ache issue with my start. I got pretty darn sweaty doing these and I was worried I was going to get fatigued. I felt fatigued but I seem to thrive on that and my last run might have actually been my best run. The usual superset that followed here was changed into a triset. Still the split squat pulses introduced last week and the continuing saga of the incline crush presses but adding in ab wheel to that. Quite evil as I know how sore my lower abs will get when I’ve not done them in a bit. Especially coupled with paused pull ups as that tends to make the top abs sore. I’ve done work up/warm up sets with the first two exercises before as kind of breaking in but I kind of felt like I should just plow along here. The split squats were same weight as last time but time increased to 40 seconds. The first set was quite rough on the knees but subsequent sets seemed to be smoother. Left side forward had the back knee aching with supporting role and with right side forward, it that leg got a deep burn feeling. These really sneak up on you over the sets. I was most nervous about the incline considering how last week went. And I was being told to do 75-80lbs here for 12 rep sets. Considering the struggles, I went with 75lbs here. First set was fine but it was tough. Second set was not great. I initially fumbled up getting the weights to the chest and they got locked in a weird position and I had bail and reset. Got a bruise on a finger on the left hand and cut on a finger on the right hand. Thankfully that didn’t impair me from anything. It was a tough second set once I finally got it sorted out and I was wondering how I’d manage a third set. I was a bit more patient with things the third set and it actually felt like the easiest set. Ab wheel wasn’t much to talk about. I did have to adjust things slightly as the knee pad situation wasn’t as good as my home setup and there were times I was sliding due to sweat or fabric friction. This was really exhausting and I had to get some fresh air before the third set as I was retching after the second set. But no puke so all good. The last item for the session was new. Conditioning for conditionings sake. 1000m on a rowing erg. Assuming the gym had one, otherwise I’d have to do a 2 mile bike ride. Not a fan of stationary bikes with my frame/proportions and I don’t have a bike currently for same said reasons. The gym thankfully (not sure I should be thankful haha). I’ve not touched a row erg since I want to say 2017. So I knew this was probably going to suck. Just had to make sure I didn’t just use my arms here. I felt like I was going at quite a good pace the first 100m or so but then started to get tired but I made it through in under 4 minutes. Got a little bit of a second wind when I had about 100m left to go. My hips are going to be sore from these going into that squat position pulling myself in and then extending. Finally able to cool off and drink stuff. Put stuff away and drove back home to stretch. I’m thankful I got a three day weekend to recover before another dumb week.