November 17, 2025 – Week 12, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Push Presses
46x8
76x5
106x3
136x2
166x1
196x1
226x1
256x1
256x1
256x1
256x0,0,0
256x1
256x1
256x1

Neutral Grip Incline Dumbbell Bench Presses
40’sx8
70’sx5
95’sx5
95’sx5
95’sx5
95’sx5 (missed 5th rep twice)
95’sx4 (missed 4th rep had to reclean, right never fully locked last rep)

Dumbbell Push Presses (5 second eccentrics)
70’sx4
70’sx4
70’sx4
70’sx4

Barbell Z Presses/Heels Elevated Goblet Squats (4-0-4-0 tempo)
45x5
95x3/bwx3
125x10/bw+15x10
125x10/bw+30x10
125x10/bw+40x10

Supinated Bent Over Dumbbell Drag Rows/Band Seated Leg Extensions (4-0-4-0 tempo)
80’sx8/ab+(2)µbx25
80’sx8/ab+(2)µbx25
80’sx8/ab+(2)µbx25

Stretching

Comments: I guess thankfully the sciatica stuff has calmed down a good bit at this point so it is hardly noticeable. Which is good. Just lingering now I guess. Apparently the system wasn’t working like all day on Monday so essentially nothing got done so Monday ended up having stuff for Friday to do even though I was out of office that day. Had me feeling a bit drained with that and I did get to working out about 30-40 minutes later than usual while at home figuring out training for the week as I pretty much went through my breaks. Weight back up a little so just under 260lbs again. Also had to put in leave selection for the year and that is annoying when I don’t know details for all the possible competitions I’d like to do next year. So had to cull those that didn’t make sense or lacked information and coming up soon. Or I just didn’t like them and hopefully better options. But I know I’ll end up having stuff that I didn’t plan for that will probably be a plan to get coverage. But hey, I managed to move stuff this year to go to world’s when I was off by a week on my guess. It does stink it is cold and dark before I even get to training. Some new stuff this session and I was anxious/hopefully for the training. Then my right and left shoulder decided to feel like complete crap and be achy right as I was about to start my soft tissue work. Really just hoping being temperamental here. Soft tissue foam rolling was fine. Nothing really stood out here. Did notice my hips were tight and that my glutes/hamstring sore from the box squats. Hips probably with the fast yoke runs too. Neck rehab stuff followed and that was good. Seemed to get shoulders feeling a little better. From there stretches for hips, knees, ankles and hamstrings. Did a dead hang as well before going on to train. Axle out of the rack again. I had a feeling this would be what this workout was if not a deload session. And I was kind of hoping on some pull back with how up and down axle had been last session with missing reps and having to extend sets and having some rough reps in there. But sometimes I feel like crap and the right call ends up being the switch in the programming and I move forward. So this session was to do 250-255lbs for 6 singles. I’ve done this workout with cleans and I did have a miss on that. It was cold and dark already. Since the last time I did this weight with the clean and presses that seemed to work out for me well enough that I felt ready for the top weight I repeated that here. I wasn’t too sure with things but I was hoping that my last warm up single would give me a taste of what I had in me today. That rep went up smooth and I felt like maybe I just needed a little adjustment here. As last time about this weight hit a sticking point hard that first rep. Working weight actually didn’t feel that bad as far as getting that power up to lockout. But I didn’t feel like I had the power to rep this weight. Which was about the same feeling when I did these with clean and press. I felt things were going well here as I was taking about my usual rest I do between sets with my house pacing and that worked out well for the first three sets. The fourth set was trouble. Now unracking the weight it actually felt the best so far so I don’t know what I did to screw up this that I lost all the power upward. I felt like maybe it was a misgroove and tried again before racking the weight and stepping back for a beat and a breath. I definitely was panicking a bit here and rushed that and this final attempt at the rep in “set” went nowhere. I didn’t feel like it couldn’t move in the rack position and I got frustrated a let a little too much aggression out and chucked the axle into the rack. I’ve had worse temper tantrums with the axle but it has been like over 3yrs since I’ve chucked it into the rack. I had to adjust my rack later as it was off kilter. I went into the garage to calm down and recover and increased my rest time for the remaining singles. The successful fourth and fifth were rough. I’m actually surprised I got them with how hard I hit the sticking point on those. Which made the ease of the last single all the more baffling. I held it and did little stomps in balance and cursed with how that went so well compared to the previous issues. Overhead (and namely axle right now) confuses me. I’m trying to not watch other people’s pressing videos with axle as doesn’t feel good for the mental state with how it has been. It isn’t the competition event at this time but I need to keep it and log in the mix so not so rough coming back to it. So then officially into the garage for dumbbell stuff. Incline dumbbell pressing again with the neutral grip. Plan being 5x5 with 95lbs. I wasn’t too sure about these with my shoulders feeling achy. But trusting the plan here. These had felt tough and somewhat rough last time. I really couldn’t get the feel for these today for the most part. Too tucked and it felt like no triceps or shoulder strength and trying to not having my hands rotating back to more standard grip. These can get confusing as there will be times it feels like a struggle and other’s where it clicks. This was not one of my better sessions of these. This was on that showed the discrepancy between the left and right side. Left doesn’t seem to have an issue with locking out stuff by the right side does and when I can’t get stable and press through, that side is the one that lags and falls apart. I wasted energy on pride on these. The fourth set, I missed the fourth rep initially (the left side could get it, the right was a nope) and decided I’d reclean the dumbbells to my shoulders to try it again. I did and I rushed it so that I couldn’t get into the right position for my right side (left pressed it easy) and failed again so of course I recleaned it to try once more and finally got it. I took a longer rest since that took a bit out of me and I was hopeful I could get through the last set without incident. Nope. Initially felt strong but then missed the fourth rep and had to reclean. Got one more rep and I just hit a wall with the right side going for that last rep. I locked out the left side and valiantly struggled but couldn’t get my elbow to lockout on the right and called it there. Already wasted enough energy here. Pressing having a rough time with recovery. At least that is what I think but then I will have performances that suggest otherwise. So the next thing was still dumbbells but finally a switch from the floor presses. Overhead stuff with push press. Clean dumbbells to shoulders and push press with 5 seconds eccentrics. Told to be explosive. I asked for clarification if weight or speed of press more the focus as I’ve done some pretty ballistic style dumbbell pressing with 40’s. And I’d prefer to have the solid dumbbells at least for the start as didn’t want to dick around with plateloaded dumbbells, especially after how incline ended (incline is another wascally wabbit for me). Clean to shoulders a little different and dismount could use some fine tuning but these felt strong and how I’d like them to. Didn’t feel like I was struggling with feeling myself here. I didn’t need to take more than my normal rest despite the accentuated eccentrics. From there it was on to the supersets. Another adjustment to the first one. So the change from last time with it being now z presses carried over but the second half no longer the Spanish squats. I guess trying out something else with doing heel elevated goblet squats. With the z presses, I wanted to see if I could use the sawhorses since I didn’t need a rack weighted down to do the goblet squats. Rather have in one place than outside and inside. Rather stay somewhat warm since the goblet squats won’t keep me as warm as the Spanish squats did with the reps. So the z presses did work out of the sawhorses. Plan for them was 3x10 with 125-135lbs. Now I’d like to be doing 135lbs here but I felt considering how most of the pressing today went and the floor pressing was swapped to more overhead with increased fatigue with slow negatives, that it was wiser to go with 125lbs to get 3x10. This was a good call on my part as this was enough and I think 135lbs would’ve been a bridge too far by the end. The goblet squats were a learning session as I wasn’t sure how they would feel. Plan was 3x10 with 4-0-4-0 tempo on them. So less reps than Spanish squats but slower pace on the reps. I did these without my knee sleeves. I know the aim was to try and stay upright but that is a major struggle for me even without a weight or counterbalance. I’ll just have to see what next time brings. But I added weight each set as trying to find an ideal working weight. I used my adjustable kettlebell handle to fine tune as well. Not adverse to dumbbell but wanted options. The last pairing for the evening remained the same as last time with just adjustments to reps and weights. The rowing exercise is still an odd one for me and I needed to use the plateloaded handles this week due to the weight increase. I tried to put small plates on the inside to increase the width so that the larger plates weren’t hitting my thighs. These feel a bit awkward and I wonder if I’m doing these right. I also wonder if perhaps the same thing could be accomplished using an EZ curl bar. But these were done. The other part still the double band leg extensions with tempo. I knew I was going to be using more band tension than last time for these even if the reps increased. I made a mistake here and looked at the reps for the leg curls on Day 2 and got them confused with the reps for Day 1 for the leg extensions. So I did sets of 25 reps instead of 20 reps (up from 15 reps) with the increased band tension. I don’t think it would’ve mattered much really, other than not be like 4.5 minute sets of leg extensions. I’ve done straight set of 100 reps a few times on leg extensions so they will just keep going. Put stuff away and got my dinner before stretching. Noticing my outer quads have some definition now so obviously the work is going somewhere.