October 4, 2025 – Week 5, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Heel Elevated Safety Squat Bar Squats
65x10
115x5
155x4
205x3
245x2
275x1
305x2
305x2
305x2
305x2
305x2
305x2

Axle Push Presses (0-1-0-1 tempo)
36x5
66x5
96x3
126x3
156x2
186x2
216x5
216x5
216x5
216x5
216x5

Split Squat Pulses/Incline Dumbbell Squeeze Bench Presses
bwx5/5 – 40’sx5
20’sx30 seconds/30 seconds – 80’sx7
20’sx30 seconds/30 seconds – 72.5’sx10
20’sx30 seconds/30 seconds – 72.5’sx11

Curtsy Lunges/Single Arm Dumbbell Triceps Extensions
bwx6/6 – 26x5/5
bw+50x10/10 -- 40x8/8
bw+50x10/10 -- 40x8/8
bw+50x10/10 -- 40x8/8
bw+50x10/10 -- 40x8/8

Stretching

Comments: I apparently needed even more sleep this weekend compared to last as it was almost noon by the time I got out of bed. Which was fine for this day as the gym wasn’t opening until 6PM due to powerlifting meet so it made sense to just be home and train anyways. I had prepared for that from doing the session at home last weekend as well. Going to need to not do this for the next three weekends since I’m going to be having to change my schedule with the mandated in office every day a month on and month off. Essentially losing 2hrs a day with needing to get up earlier and get to bed earlier as well as also having to adjust my diet during the week for ease and time efficiency. A later start obviously but felt like it took even longer for me to get going compared to last weekend. Foam rolling was needed on the lower legs but not as much as it has sometimes needed. And surprisingly more so the left side this time around. No so much on other things. Foam rolling the area where I might have torn stuff in the left inner thigh/lower quad didn’t aggravate anything. Like I said, it has been weird. Moved on to the neck rehab stuff and that was good. Did some stuff for my ankles and knees before doing stuff with stretches for the hips, ankles and knees and dead hang for decompression. From there on to training and starting off with the ssb squats with heels elevated and atg style. The setup last time had not been ideal but it worked. As it was not expected to rain, I figured I would make the effort to use my actual power rack outside instead. Hopefully it would allow me to have the unrack position higher and not be so rough. It was but not by much. I also didn’t lift inside the rack because I didn’t want to ruin the one spider’s web. I had felt guilty accidently ruining it (I forgot it was there) during the week and was glad to see she repaired it. Plan for today was heavier than last time but reducing volume. It had been 5x5 and this was 6x2. Suggested was 285-305lbs. I knew that with the dropping of reps that even if things felt rough, I could do a bit more weight, even with the not so ideal setup with unracking and the raised heels. If I stuck to what I did last week, I was likely going to do 295lbs as then it was just 40-50lbs jumps of quarters and plates. But with it being outside on the sturdier setup and able to get it a little higher, I went with 305lbs. Especially since over 300lbs went so smoothly on the front box squat stuff. Knees were quite stiff and achy today and it took a bit to get them warmed up with squats. I had hoped that doing 30lbs jump for a single was going to be enough to get me used to the heavier weight for the doubles right off the bat but I guess not as I had to take a moment after the first rep to collect myself to do the second rep. But after that, things went about as expected with the doubles and keeping to about 90 seconds rest here. With squats finished, it was pretty easy to move on to axle since rack was already setup, just had to move the goofy stuff out and swap the bar. No rain this week. I was a little nervous here as I was doing yet another push press session. Monday had been an increase in push press frequency and a bit surprising after doing push press on Saturday too. This was still to be the double paused style with in the dip and overhead but changing from triples to sets of five reps. Suggested weight being 205-215lbs. I just went with 1lbs more since it was easier to not deal with the fractional plates (need them for dumbbell stuff). Those extra reps had me nervous as I’ve seen how fatigue builds on these. But I need it. I did take longer rests similar to the eccentric emphasis stuff on Monday to make sure I was recovering. Managed to get through these with only the last rep being one that wasn’t terribly crisp with lockout and having to catch my balance. The longer sets definitely had me thinking on positioning under fatigue so as not to screw up and expend more energy for a good rep. The rest of the workout after that being the supersets. Some changes to these from last week again. As part of letting hips rest (though who knows what actually got upset with me), the split squats were changed to being not having the back leg elevated and to do “pulses”. The pulses being doing just the bottom half of the movement. Same weight but back to 30 seconds here. Since I needed my plateloaded handles for something else, I held on to my 10lbs dumbbells and 10lbs kettlebells at the same time. These were fine and I feel like I got more used to them as I went. The issues this session were with the incline squeeze bench. I was told to do sets of 10 reps with 75-80lbs. I don’t have a pair of solid dumbbells and trying to do above 70lbs on these leads to having to use the 25’s which cuts down the ROM for this kind of press as well as having the “together” portion not as narrow. So the initial thinking was to try using my one 80lbs dumbbell and loading up one handle with 80lbs. It would be for just one session anyways. That didn’t work out so well. The plateloaded handle felt tougher than the solid one and this was ending up being too challenging and I called it at 7 reps. Not happy about that. I couldn’t figure out a way to get the handles to be 75lbs with smaller plates so eventually went with 72.5lbs with the understanding this would be for just this session and never speak of it again. I was thinking of making up for the first set with getting more reps than 10 but apparently I got stopped there when the dumbbells slipped and had to restart the tenth rep to get it. The final set did feel better and I got 11 but couldn’t get a twelfth. Definitely feeling fatigue from the increase weight of all the pressing this week. But still annoyed. Moving on. The superset of curtsy lunges and triceps remained the same but another set added. Additionally, I was told to do 50lbs for the lunges with indication I was to get 4x8 with 40lbs on the triceps. Knees were feeling achy despite the split squat pulses but got better as I went. I had been entertaining doing 70lbs on these from how things had felt last week with the first session but I’m glad I didn’t as these felt quite challenging doing 50lbs for all the sets rather than just the last one working up. I started them this time with the left side rather than right side as well. Was feeling fatigue in the shoulders holding the weights in the racked position the entire time. Triceps extensions felt better this week. Not sure if perhaps the slightly heavier warming up set helped here. I had already resigned to eating dinner early than usual and not trying to squeeze in any meals like last weekend. Took a bit for me to cool down and eat. Stretched out later.