November 26, 2025 – Week 13, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Long Bar Deadlifts (straps)
143x5
235x3
323x2
Add Holds at Lockout (2 seconds)
373x1
423x1
473x2
473x2
473x2
473x2
473x2
473x2

Safety Squat Bar Front Box Squats (21”)
65x8
115x6
155x4
205x2
255x7
255x7
255x7
255x7

Paused Snatch Grip Romanian Deadlifts (straps, 2 seconds)/Chest Supported I Flys and T Flys/Paused Lying Band Leg Curls (3 seconds)
265x3/10’sx3+3
355x8/21’sx10+10/(2)mmbx10
355x8/21’sx10+10/(2)mmbx10
355x8/21’sx10+10/(2)mmbx10

Sandbag Marches
225x20 seconds
225x20 seconds
225x20 seconds
225x20 seconds
225x20 seconds
225x20 seconds
225x20 seconds

Stretching

Comments: So if it wasn’t apparent I had checked out for the month on Monday in regards to work, yesterday and today made that abundantly clear. Honestly, I just want this year to be done at this point. I do feel like I’m on the tail end of this cold as I didn’t need any meds yesterday or today. It is good that I did stick to doing the workouts as planned on Monday and today rather than space them out as weather on Tuesday wasn’t great (hard rain in November ugh) and I’d have been out of it going certain days and then having to have things be quite rigid for the next month. Trying to not let things going on in the world (close to home and at large) stress me out but it is good that I have a close and supportive place and it is affirmative to see that things I put my faith and trust in are what they say they are if that makes sense. I was looking forward to work ending so I could get to training and get it done and then make the most of the time off to get things in order. I tend to forget I kind of get down mentally around this time of year because of my friend passing away at this time and that this was my mom’s parent’s favorite holiday and they are no longer with us. So busy lately that it sneaks up on me subconsciously and then I don’t understand feeling this way and tired until I get a break and kind go “oh right” and then I seem to understand and not feel so off. Work done and don’t got to worry about it until next month. Foam rolling was ok. Calves were alright and then my quads were really tight. I was wondering why and then I remembered the tempo goblet squats and the new quad dominant movement as well. That makes sense. Neck rehab followed and that was needed. My upper body (especially shoulders) were feeling Monday session. Went into the stretching for hips, ankles, hamstrings and knees after that followed by a dead hang to decompress. Then I did the tib raises/calf raises, treating these as the first exercise of the lifting session. I do like that it feels I’m getting better control of my ankles and feet with training. Then time for garage work. Bendy long bar pulls again. Volume adjusted a good bit. Still a lot of sets but now doubles with 20lbs added. Last time these had started off quite rough and then I somehow got into a zone where deadlifts felt great for most of the rest of it. I don’t know if it was a combination of Dayquil and mindset and form or what. I tried my best to replicate that but didn’t quite get there. These didn’t feel awful but I didn’t quite get these reps to feel like the solid reps I was getting last week with 20lbs less. I did same warming up with plate jumps and then 50lbs but did 50lbs all the way up once going to those jumps to get to what I wanted for the working weight. I was to do the 1 second holds but I ended up going longer with more like 2-3 seconds as I was fully exhaling and then taking a breath before going. I think I did this for consistency sake and not end up rushing and I did used to do this style in the past when coming back from back injury and working on bracing. Even with this weight, I was able to keep my rests between doubles to about 90 seconds like the box squats on Saturday. Which felt good to know I could do the repeat that quickly and having things be consistent. I got a little silly near the end with singing to the music playing. From there, I got a little bit of a drink and put stuff away for what comes next. The consistent second thing of ssb front box squats. Drop in weight and increase in reps with 4x7 as the proposed work today. The suggested weight was 245-255lbs. Initially, I put down as by feel but aim being the 255lbs. Then with how I was feeling the blahs this week and maybe just thinking about the more event specific things being fun and maybe just that the squats would take more out of me from the other stuff that was tougher, I contemplated using the lighter weight range. But I felt that that wasn’t me and aimed for the top end range even if the weight jumps were weird. I did alter my warming up on these slightly to have more reps at the lighter weights at first just to have the knees awake as not as much deadlifting and then lower reps as getting to there so that I got bracing right and see how knees were doing. I figured I should be fine here as I’ve done 20lbs more for 6x6 not long ago. These felt comfortable and easy for the most part. I did put on a fan in the garage as I was getting a little heated doing these for the reps. Only reason rests were longer than the deadlifts was that I was having issues with belching. These only started to feel like something on the last rep of the last rep and that was more from keeping the rests shorter and trying to bang these out like the deadlifts so that I could move on with the evening. The time of the workouts will matter more next month with the work shift change. Another break to get fluids in me as I put stuff away and got ready for the draining triset. This past week had been the toughest it has been with the current iteration of snatch grip rdls, upper back dumbbell raises and band leg curls. It had been the first time I missed a rep on the rdls. Granted, I think we’ve added 60lbs to them since the start of off-season prep. So slight tweaks again. Weight increasing 10lbs on the rdls and reps being dropped to 6-8. That was expected and needed change. The dumbbell raises I was a little surprised that notes were to increase the weight more rather than reps. With how the weight felt last week, it seemed to be a good idea just with the torque on my joints from leverages to add a warm up set to this like I do the snatch rdls. The band leg curls were changed from tempo to pause style. 3 second holds at contraction and only 10 reps. Notes said same band tension but I knew from past experience that it would be way too easy so I went up a band tension. That first set of the rdls felt tougher than I’d have liked. Made me wonder how I did 10lbs less for 12 reps last week while congested. I also seem to be quick on my second counts on these for some reason. The dumbbell raises pairing was the toughest thing for me this week. A 5lbs increase on these feels monstrous and the I raises were going to be the easier one for sure. Until this point, I rested a beat before doing the T raises but I knew that I needed to rest a little bit longer between them with how taxing these were going to be. So I did about 15 seconds rest before doing the other half of the raises and that was still very challenging. The band leg curls were still quite easy even with increasing the band tension but they felt good. I think I was ready to use the longer rests like the past two weeks or so with the tempo leg curls fatiguing me so but that wasn’t the case with the paused style sapping me so I was able to do just a regular rest period before doing the next set. That is still a long rest than other stuff with getting my air and stopping belching and getting setup. Second set of the rdls felt like they should and was feeling comfortable with the third set feeling about in the middle to the first and second set. So about par the course on these. The raises got tougher each set and the leg curls felt fine and comfortable. The anxiety was still on finishing the rdls no issue and then not having to rest too long between the dumbbell raises as the leg curls were the easy on this time around. Put stuff away again before getting ready for sandbag marches. I had not wanted to really do them last week with how I was feeling but didn’t feel like that this time around. Same weight and time but another set. Advised I got another week of these so probably another set is going to be added to finish off the off season prep (assuming here). I am noticing that increased frequency with touches of this is having me getting more comfortable quicker with getting the bag up high. I’m kind of intentionally pausing in the lap to then adjust my momentum and how I’m squeezing the bag and not rushing it and that seems to be working. Old dog and new tricks so to speak. These felt fine, it was more of again getting myself to not be belching before I went for the next set. I wasn’t quite done here as after the last set, I had to load 300lbs of sandbags into my car to take to the gym this Saturday in the event I need to fill and use my new husafell sandbag. Moving 50lbs bags is really easy after lifting 225lbs after all this. Finished with that and started cooking dinner. Stretched afterwards and pretty sure going to sleep until noon tomorrow.