October 6, 2025 – Week 6, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Push Presses (4 second eccentrics)
26x5
56x3
86x2
116x2
146x2
176x2
206x5
206x5
206x5
206x5
206x5 (missed 5th rep twice, had to rerack to get it)

Breathing Pause 12” Log Incline Bench Presses (2 second eccentrics)
90x3
120x3
150x3
180x6
180x6
180x6
180x6

Alternating + Together Dumbbell Floor Presses
70’sx8(1/1/1)
70’sx8(1/1/1)
70’sx8(1/1/1)
70’sx8(1/1/1)

Half Kneeling Neutral Grip Dumbbell Presses/Assisted Spanish Squats
bwx5
55x12/12 – bwx60 seconds
55x12/12 – bwx60 seconds
55x12/12 – bwx60 seconds

Deadstop Pendlay Rows/Band Single Leg Seated Leg Extensions
135x6 
205x12 -- mb+10x25/25
205x12 -- mb+10x25/25
205x12 -- mb+10x25/25

Stretching

Comments: Weight back up a little. Had to get myself prepped for having to commute to office every day this month. Have to go to bed and hour earlier to get up an hour earlier so I can get to work on time. I did pull the trigger on signing up for a competition in February in Arizona. Just wasn’t vibing with the New Jersey natural show events and I’d rather do something interesting and fun. Will also be able to have it be a family trip so that is also a plus. Trying to travel a little more with how I liked the PNW and Ireland. I did not enjoy work having to go in and then come back. Diet has to be adjusted for ease during this month and I felt a little tired at end of the day but perked up when I got home so that was good. Really needed to get through the training and hopefully have it not be terribly late. The left thigh thing not sure but it seems to be less sensitive and pronounced. Foam rolling was needed after work. Not a ton per se on the lower legs but definitely for the upper back. Neck rehab stuff followed that up and then did some stuff for ankles and knees before doing lower body stretching followed by a dead hang. Push pressing with axle again. This session being  eccentric accentuation style. I was kind of hoping more weight and less reps/sets but nope. Same weight as last time but doing 5x5 with the 4 second eccentrics. I know how much tougher an extra rep makes on things with tempo modifiers. I had been quite worked on Saturday with the paused push presses with that going from 12 reps to 25 reps. This was going to be 50 reps at working weight over 200lbs (my top sets of 5 at RPE 7-8 at start of off season). This was potentially a big ask for recovery. I had felt joints were a bit achy Saturday with my knees. They were achy today but I did still feel like I had good power. At least it didn’t feel super terrible like I made a big mistake when I did get to the working weight. It did feel a bit like it did last time where I was worried I was taking too big a bite to chew. A positive from last week is that I didn’t feel like I was getting the tendon irritation from the eccentrics in either shoulder. I had some really good strung together reps on the third set at the beginning where I was pretty much able to go instantly from the eccentric into the next rep but did need to take a momentary pause after the first three to ensure rep quality. I also feel like I didn’t have nearly as many reps where I felt that I was going backwards. But I did notice that I was feeling like balance was tough as I went so possible fatigue from the big pressing Saturday as well as ever increasing weight on squats. Last set is where I hit a road block. First four reps were much like the previous set but then I just biffed it on the last rep and it went out in front of me and I couldn’t recover to get under it to lock out. I tried again but same result so I had to rack it. I took a few moments to collect myself before getting the bar back on my shoulders and getting a tougher than I’d like press to finish out the set. Not ideal to have two misses at a rep. I’d have been really beside myself if I did miss that rep on the third try to be sure. I know that my axle prescription is being adjusted with the planned competitions overhead event so hopefully things can recover a little bit. With that fatigue in mind, moving on to the breathing pause log stuff. Same as last time with it being the two second eccentrics and breathing pause. Same weight as last time but now 4x6. I realized that with how the reps got a lot tougher after the first 3-4 reps that I’d likely need to use rest periods closer to what I’ve been doing for the eccentric focus stuff rather than my usual rests. I was a little leery with these because they had gotten quite tough by the end last week and I was feeling like my shoulders were even more toasted this time around. Having had not the best incline stuff on Saturday followed by the having to do a triple take to get last rep of axle I wasn’t sure these would go well for me. But sometimes the body is a liar and you have to push on. I did the same jumps as last time here as I did with axle and that seemed to be fine. First set was ok but not confidence building. Fatigue was noticed on the second set. Not sure with the third set as it felt like I got a second wind at the start but definitely let me know on the last rep that this last set would be a close one like last time. It was and the last rep was a grinder that went a little sideways but it was done. Really been pushing the envelope on the pressing this offseason. Not so much that I’m overtraining, more that I’m not as conditioned here as I should to have the base to recover for the higher intensity stuff. Moving right along into the garage for more pressing. Alternating floor presses with dumbbells like last week with it being 3 parts to equal 1 rep. I was prepared to go up in weight on these after last week but with how the axle and log had me feeling today at the end, I was fine with things staying the same weight but just more sets. So an extra set from last time. This was an interesting one this time around as I was not terribly coordinated last week here. This time around it was moving quite smoothly and I had these feeling pretty good with just slowdown at the end of the sets. So considering how dumbbell stuff felt Saturday and how other pressing leading up was feeling, quite surprised how well this went. Moving on to the supersets. So as the same as last week with half kneeling presses to start as it has been. Bumping reps back up to 12 and told to do 50-55lbs here. Despite my better judgement with how everything besides the floor pressing was exhausting and being struggle bus, I went with 55lbs here. I’ve done about 30lbs heavier on these a few years back so I know this isn’t my limit and it’s not supposed to be. This is building. But I knew it was probably going to be challenging after about 140 reps of working set pressing before this time in the night. This was the toughest this has been and I could really feel myself bracing to have a stable base on these. Left side had my one ugly rep where I lost tightness and the dumbbell started rotating out of neutral grip position. Been a good while since I’ve had that happen on these. But definitely hit the fatigue limit on these as well. I don’t know if I need to just keep pushing on through or having things pull back a little for recovery. The Spanish squats being the other half of this. Two sessions ago I finally got these stupid things to click on the last set and got them to be even better last week after having to kind of get things to loose up in my knees and ankles to allow myself to be able to do them. I knew that was likely going to be the case with how they were feeling on Saturday and from being in the office. I did some practice reps and adjusting footwear and stance and even then I wasn’t quite ready when it was time to do the sets. I had lamented about having a more time so that it would feel right longer since it seems I need to do a rep or so for things to be moving right. A minute for the sets this time. I was a little tentative that first set a few reps before things finally relaxed and I could do the motion like I should. Second set it was almost immediate and I finally got that “deep burn” in my right quad that I was expecting to finally happen. Last set the burn was there pretty quick and was finally getting into the left side as well. Lactic acid did slow me down from my pace.  But hey, finally cooking with gas here, even if this is the most regressed it can be variation on these. One last superset to end the night. Pendlay rows as per usual. Same weight as last time but increasing reps to 12. Like last week, a little bit of knee aches to get into position but better as I went and feeling tension in the hamstrings (more so the left leg). These felt better position wise as I went and could tell that the reps are adding up with fatigue. The other part was the banded single leg extensions. Sets of 25 reps this time around. The setup from last week I did again with the ankle weights to anchor the mini bands. I also moved the table out a little further so more tension compared to last week as well. These were fine. Could feel/hear my right knee clicking. No pain on these. They feel a bit like active rest compared to most things I do. Put stuff away while my dinner was finishing up. Stretched and cleaned up before bed. This is going to suck for a month with Monday and Wednesday workouts I can tell.