November 8, 2025 – Week 10, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

Heel Elevated Safety Squat Bar Squats (4-0-4-0 tempo)
70x6
100x5
130x4
160x3
190x2
220x1
250x6
250x6
250x6
250x6

Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (left side only)
49x4
72x3
94x2
108x1
125x1
140x1
155x3 (1 miss)
155x3
155x3 (3 misses)
155x3
155x3

Yoke
220x50’
310x50’
400x50’
490x50’
EMOM
580x50’
580x50’
580x50’
580x50’

ATG Split Squats (16”)/Ab Walkouts (kneeling)
bwx12/12 – bwx8
bwx12/12 – bwx8
bwx12/12 – bwx8

Rower (2 minutes rest)
500m in 1 minutes 43.90 seconds
500m in 1 minutes 44.80 seconds
500m in 1 minutes 45.60 seconds
500m in 1 minutes 48.10 seconds

Stretching

Comments: Getting back on the telework schedule again just felt better immediately and almost feels like I’ve been doing it all this time rather just being four days of it. Next week is also going to be a not much at work week with Veterans’ Day and then time off for funeral. With the budget impasses at both state and federal level, work continues to be confusing and hectic. Consistent walks in the daylight have helped with getting a step back to process and decompress rather than just work right through. I didn’t intend for this to be a session where I got out there late or stayed out there late. But it happened. I slept in about an hour from my usual work start time which wasn’t that bad and I knew I needed the sleep. Maybe I spent a little too much time fiddling around before leaving (getting some thoughts together about upcoming year plans) and I was really surprised how little traffic there was. There is going to be demolition happening next weekend in the evening so even that shouldn’t be an issue. Where I got my time ate up was with me apparently being starved of human contact and people that I enjoy talking to and talking about stuff being there and just venting on stuff in regards to the government stuff and strongman ideas. Time before I finished with my warming up, before I did exercises (squats, yoke, superset) and before I left putting stuff away. I don’t regret that as didn’t impact my workout. I can switch on a dime from talking to intense training. Foam rolling needed for both calves at the top section but like not as badly as it has been some days. The other spot really needing it was my right quad and it felt like I was massaging a piece of iron with how tight it was feeling. Neck rehab stuff was fine as per usual. Keeping an eye on things with neck and shoulders. I modified the knee/ankle stuff slightly as my shoes were not having the traction they were giving last week for some reason. My right knee was feeling more sore than I’d have liked doing that stuff. I dropped an exercise as didn’t feel it really was needed to warm up for stuff and that it wasn’t until I’m doing yoke that it would be helpful. Then the stretches for the hips, ankles and knees and dead hang for decompression. I did do a little more of the Cossack stretch this time around as well. On to weights (eventually as I got chatting away). Heel elevated ssb squats to start things off as has been the case. Tempo style again. Not too bad about that. These tend to make my knees feel better it seems as far as the eccentric but these get exhausting and make it so rest periods increase on the working sets. Plan this time around was 4x6 and suggested weight being 235-250lbs. So range being 10lbs less than last time to 5lbs more than last time. My initial plan going into this was to hopefully be better acclimated to this style of squat and use same weight as last time and have that be enough with the extra rep each set. But I got that little voice/feeling saying that 5lbs is not a lot and that it is “only wafer thin” so I just added 5lbs to the start weight with the 30lbs jumps. My right knee was thankfully not feeling like it had last week. Still, the first rep of working weight continues to be one where I seem to get lightheaded and have to catch myself and then no issues after that. It can be tough to find consistency and what works as part of it is keeping track of the count and not wanting the weight to crush you and then also breathing. The rest periods from last week seemed to be ok with the extra rep until the third set. That last rep I had to cut depth slightly as I felt like I was going to get pitched forward from fatigue and not get back up. So I made sure I was recovered a good deal more before I did the last set of these and didn’t have that issue there. I was regretting not bringing more than one fresh shirt as I had thought it would be cooler today. Put stuff away and got ready for circus dumbbell. With the lighter weight on the squats but increased tempo, it is making my legs tired but the joints seemed to be more warmed up so less knee aches when doing leg drive based pressing. I noticed that with log last week. So hopefully that would be true with circus dumbbell and knees wouldn’t feel like crap on the first set. So that did end up being the case where not feeling like crap but it felt like something went in my back slightly just bending over to get the lightest dumbbell so that was a little unnerving. But seemed ok. As has been the case the last two times, still just using my strong side and do it as I would competition style. First session had gone about as well as expected and then I seemed to pull back on the second session here as I wasn’t feeling quite there but did eventually by the end. So My hope was that I should tough it out from the start, be confident and do my thing. So plan for the session was to do 5x3 with 5-10lbs more than last time. Same warm up jumps as last time until I got to the 120lbs dumbbell.  The smallest dumbbell feels fine and then honestly the 94lbs feels the most awkward followed by the 108lbs. So since the potential plan here was to do 150lbs (contest weight) or 155lbs, I needed to set things up for those kind of jumps so I went with 125lbs rather than the empty 120lbs to bridge the gap. I didn’t have any issues this time around with having the dumbbell go out of control and bang my ear so that was already a good sign. 140lbs didn’t feel bad but didn’t feel super easy. But I went with 155lbs. I was nervous and a good bit of time between sets was getting my stomach to settle and stop belching. One thing I noticed this time around is that I had to let the weight settle more before going for the drive. First set the first rep went up like I wanted it to. I’m not entirely sure what happened going for the second rep right after that. But after the miss, I set it down and decided I’d treat this first set as three singles and then hopefully adjust from there for the following sets as I tend to get better on things like this as I go and get more warmed up and confident. Last rep felt the strongest and most powerful of the set and I think helped me get my head right for what was to come. I did get these in about 45 seconds which isn’t a great time but still under a minute. Second set went more like how I expect things to go when I’m on point. Third set was a disaster but I didn’t give up. First attempt at a rep I felt strong and it went up fast but I rushed it and couldn’t stabilize and get lockout. So didn’t count it and kept dumbbell on my shoulder and got the rep like I should. Went for the second right after that but it didn’t feel right in the rack position. So I set it down without attempting the press. Ok, damage control, do singles. Going for the second rep after collecting myself was not good as I really missed that lift. Ok, panic starting to set in. I undid my left wrist wrap because at this point it was starting feel too tight and I needed to get feeling in the hand if this set was going to go into overtime. Rewrapped and went at it again and even worse attempt but I didn’t freak out and let it settle and finally got a rep that I had to commit and work for to finish. Ok, one more and then done with this terrible set. I was feeling tired and it was in the rack position a good bit but it honestly went up as the best rep of the day. I just had to give it some bombastic side-eye after all the dramatics. Noticed afterwards that that I had nicked the right thumb again and had some blood. This took almost 2 minutes to finish so I took a bit longer rest before attempting the fourth set to make sure I was ready to go. Fourth set went up so easily after all that it was baffling. Only a slight bobble on the first rep but these went up. Now hopefully I break the trend of the odd sets sucking here on this last set. This went about as well as the fourth set and I flipped off the camera for good measure while holding the last lift aloft. Overhead can be so dumb. This had been the thing I was most anxious about this workout. Everything else felt like a sure thing. It is good I am doing over contest weight for reps consistently and 13 weeks away from contest day. From there it was on to yoke. Same as last week with it being 4x50’ done EMOM style. Suggested appeared to be 5-15lbs more than last time. I’m not sure if that was based off me doing 560lbs instead of 555lbs so I went with it being 10-20lbs more than last time. Like last time, I went with doing 90lbs jumps instead of 100lbs jumps so that I could do an extra run warming up and could get used to larger plates with my pick and movement as well as gradually pick up pace warming up. First set was like I was just walking and then a more gradual pace after that with essentially a full speed run on my last set before the working weight. I did end up having a good bit of break right before I was to go here talking to a friend but I don’t feel like that really impacted things here. This felt similar to last week at the start with the first set feeling the slowest and worst. And it was. But it did feel like this time that I actually got quicker and smoother as I went and that feeling wasn’t a lie. Last time I had thought my second set was my fastest run. So this went well. Still 170lbs off contest weight at this point but progress is good. It was about that time with it being a lot later than I expected or wanted it to be so I decided I’d move on to the next thing and put away yoke weights and such when I was done with everything. The superset to finish up the lifting was altered slightly. So first half still the split squat regression. Sets of 12 reps this time. I decided I’d lower the box another level to 16” and see how that felt. I’m getting a little more ankle movement in the right side compared to last week so that is something. However, this may be around the limit for “no pain” on my right side at least for today. I know my left side can go lower based on feel. I don’t think that I’m going to be allowed to lower one side vs the other as that may just exacerbate the issue. But now that I’m at this height, I can have options with smaller than 4” changes if necessary. These aren’t so taxing I need a lot of rest between sides or sets. The ab stuff was a new one. Walk outs. Not standing start style but kneeling like I’ve been doing for the ab wheel. Sets of 8 reps walking out hands out and walking them back. A little tricky at first but I think I got it figured out as I went. These weren’t too bad honestly. Rowing to finish up the day. Same plan as las time with intervals of 500m row with 2 minutes rest. But an added set this time. I did figure out how to have the display show the previous time rather than potentially the average (which I may have got last week). I seemed to do better pacing wise here and only adding a second or so the first three sets and then like two seconds to the last set. I didn’t feel that beat from this either. Slammed my shake at this point and ended up hanging around a bit longer and talking more as I put stuff away. With the time shift, it was nearly pitch black darkness though only like 5:30PM. Home to stretch and clean up before getting a later dinner ready. Some aches and such which hopefully calm down with sleep and if not, I can work on them in the morning.