October 13, 2025 – Week 7, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Clean and Push Presses
One Clean
30x10
60x5
90x3
120x2
150x1
180x1
210x1
Clean Every Rep
240x3
240x3
240x3
240x3

Breathing Pause 12” Log Incline Bench Presses (2 second eccentrics)
90x3
125x3
160x3
190x5
190x5
190x5

Alternating + Together Dumbbell Floor Presses
70’sx10(1/1/1)
70’sx10(1/1/1)
70’sx10(1/1/1)

Half Kneeling Neutral Grip Dumbbell Presses/Assisted Spanish Squats
40x4/4 – bwx15
70x8/8 – bwx60 seconds
70x8/8 – bwx60 seconds
70x8/8 – bwx60 seconds

Single Arm Dumbbell Rows/Band Single Leg Seated Leg Extensions (first 10 with 2 seconds pauses)
72x4/4
112x3/3
135x8/8 -- mb+10x10+10/10+10
135x8/8 -- mb+10x10+10/10+10
135x8/8 -- mb+10x10+10/10+10

Stretching

Comments: I had definitely needed a three day weekend with how the previous week had run me ragged. I’d not have functioned if I had to go into work Monday just getting everything ready for the coming week. That new stress coupled with one family member in hospice and another in the hospital and with the general shittiness of everything right now. But trying to focus on positives. I’m doing well. I introduced one of my younger sister’s friends to strength training and strongman and a friend got engaged. Weight back to what it was two weeks ago. Finally feeling normal Monday. It is good that I had off as with the planned training if I had to do it after 5:30PM, it would’ve been a nightmare with the weather. I probably would’ve needed to move it to Tuesday but that would’ve messed with other things. So again, good it was that I had Monday off to avoid the rain (mostly). I was incredibly nervous with training because of what was being asked at the start and just how sore/fatigued a lot of things were from Saturday still. Hip flexors were sore from rowing, left arm and shoulder from circus dumbbell, lower abs from the ab wheel and feeling a bit beat from all the yoke runs. I was feeling like the pressing on Monday the previous week was going close to limits of recovery and my axle pulls had felt quite tough Wednesday. Foam rolling to start things off. Honestly not too bad with lower body. Did some movement prep for the knees and ankles and did a bit more stretching for the hips and ankles compared to what I usually do just because of how tense things were feeling. And then it was time to train. I was expecting push pressing with axle again. Which is kind of what I got. But not really. Notes were to see about how things were going with axle. Kind of testing out axle, log and dumbbell to see where things are for contest. Even with my plan for the dumbbell with how well that feels and ease or getting quick reps, I was fine with pursuing axle. Well, theoretically fine but incredibly anxious. It has not been kind to me for a few years now but I keep at it. But the fine with part is trying get this problem licked as it isn’t an event that is going away and may be something in my competition after this one. Plan was to work up to 4x3 with style of overhead I’d use in competition with aim being these triples (clean and press each rep) being RPE 8.5-9. Axle is starting to feel better but it is in my head a good bit with how terrible weight was feeling at worlds with missing 255ish in warm ups and not being able to clean 287lbs/130kgs at all. And not doing cleans for almost 2 months. I was nervous with having done a lot of circus dumbbell cleans and that being my underhand grip for the axle. I’d see how things go but I really hoped that I could hit what I had planned. If I was feeling like I did the 2-3 weeks before worlds then this was doable. I went with from the floor as I’m not sure what will be used if at either venue and best to get used to that as I felt like my floor pull was crap on deadlifts last week. This doesn’t feel like really heavy weight but the patio says differently as I feel it become gravel with each rep under the rubber matting. I really had to fight down nerves and get on it with. I knew that I had at least one rep here. I’ve never not started axle and not gotten 240lbs to go up comfortable. And that first rep did. But the second and third reps did have me thinking I had chosen poorly. I didn’t feel like I had it on the first pop to belt to go right into the clean so I had to slow down to let it settle first. If I go fast, I tend to do well in that it stays in motion and goes up. Third rep the press was tough and I had to kind of move under it. I was feeling pretty drained from that with nerves and effort so I did take longer rests here to make sure that I gave these my best effort. Second set first rep was not a great start as I had to essentially pause at each point in the lift and lockout was not crisp. I calmed myself and the second rep went up like it should, easy. Third rep with the press I got a bit forward on the initial dip for leg drive and had to reset and then not the most stable rep. Two triples down, two to go. Third set was finding that groove. That point where calmed enough to think it through and be warmed up enough that firing right while not so fatigued that hampering things. First rep I think I was surprised how quick it went up with the press that a little happy feet to stay rigid. I feel like this was the best overall set of the session on axle. The last set I could tell that I was getting worn from the effort thus far. Press was feeling it on the second rep and the third rep I had to pause on the belt before going for the clean. Going for the press the first time my feet kind of slid back and aborted the press. Really didn’t want to fail this close to finishing things out here. Got it digging deep and walked it back to center while doing a little one leg stand. The big anxiety for the session was put to bed. A little more setup than usual needed to get to the next thing. The past six weeks has been stuff out of the rack and with clean and pressing, I had moved the rack. With training at home today and not working, I took this time to get have a small lunch break. Otherwise be too late and just have and early dinner and one less meal. So put that stuff away to bring back the rack and set things up for those breathing pause log incline presses. Still same plan here with the breath pause and eccentrics were. Notes indicated doing 3x5 with 5-10lbs more than last time. That had felt pretty darn close to my limits near the end. I set things up with my jumps to adjust depending on how I felt. Leaning back on the bench had my abs really feeling the DOMS. Left shoulder a little sore but that is from having a bruise from the circus dumbbell work. I felt pretty strong here and did go with the heavier side of the recommendations. Felt pretty solid which was a pretty surprising considering how rough I was feeling doing these last week. Into the garage for the alternating floor presses with dumbbells. Same weight as last two weeks but this time going back down to 3 sets but now doing 10 rep sets. I was pretty thrilled to see how much more efficiently I was moving the weight last week compared to the first week. And this was feeling about the same honestly. Coordination felt good and I wasn’t really feeling the hard fatigue even by the end. As Ms. Funk had told me after I messaged about how axle went, the extra work is paying off. Moving on to the supersets. It started to rain a little at this point. Just misting really but it was enough that it caused me issues. So first part of the superset pairing still the one arm pressing while in half kneeling. Reps lowered with options being 3x6-8 with 60-70lbs dumbbell. I figured going for 70lbs and with that being enough weight that I should probably need a warm up/acclimation set. This made sense especially since the other half of the pairing was still the Spanish squats and those need a good bit of coaxing for my knees and joints to be chill with it. So did a set of the press with 40lbs and then spent the time I needed for my knees to get the message we were doing the squats. That warm up set was sorely needed as my knees were quite achy and needed the pressure to be ok for the working sets. I was pleased I got 3x8 with the 70lbs weight and no support gear. Spanish squats were a little bit mixed bag. Same as last week with 60 second sets. Hope being that get that first set to feel the burn and improve on that being the other sets. Didn’t end up being the case. I had issues initially with the rain causing my feet to slip with having to put so much pressure to balance. I was worried I’d need to do something else but I remembered my welcome mat and that gave me enough traction for my feet to stop slipping. I didn’t quite get the burn sensation I got last week but it could be that I got used to it. side as well. The last pairing for the day was adjusted. It has been Pendlay rows to start but changing to a different row variation. One arm dumbbell rows. Not super strict but not sloppy style. Sets of 8 reps and I was allowed to use straps. But going sans straps for grip work. I’ve not done these in a good bit and my left biceps was sore from the axle and circus dumbbell. But I did manage to go pretty heavy all things considered here. The other part was the banded single leg extensions still but slight tweak. Sets of 20 reps but the first 10 reps of each set being pauses for 2 seconds. These were fine. My right knee was feeling achy on these. Like a mechanical issue. It probably wasn’t helping matters that it was a really raining heavy and my ankle weights were getting waterlogged. It was good to be done with things and just get dinner done and stuff sorted for this coming week. I continue to be surprised what I can do when I feel like I’ve done what I can from the previous week and yet top that.