December 18, 2025 – Week 16, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Long Bar Deadlifts (straps)
143x5
235x3
323x2
375x1
428x1
478x4
478x4
478x4
478x4

Sandbag Box Squats (18”)
175x30 seconds
175x30 seconds
175x30 seconds

Single Leg Dumbbell Romanian Deadlifts/Chest Supported I Flys and T Flys
65x6/6 -- 18’sx6+6
115x8/8 -- 31’sx8+8
115x8/8 -- 31’sx8+8
115x8/8 -- 31’sx8+8

Jefferson Curls
65x1
85x8
95x8
105x8

Stretching

Comments: Getting closer to getting back on my regular training schedule. Today’s session would hopefully be the last one on an odd day for me and assuming I can suck it up with another one day of rest before doing Day 3 session, I’ll be back to my M-W-S schedule. This day has at least become a little less long in length but by no means less taxing. Work was thankfully not so bad but it was starting to warm up in the afternoon. Granted, going from below freezing to above freezing isn’t a lot but it was noticeable. Started off with foam rolling, which was ok. Calves were a little tight (right at the tops). Quads were really tight on both sides this time around as well. Upper back was needing the foam rolling but not so much as it has the past week. Neck rehab followed and that was needed. It wasn’t as relaxing as it I wanted it to be with my neck still feeling the effects of the tweak Friday. My left shoulder is sore from the past two training sessions as well. Went into the stretching for hips, ankles, hamstrings and knees after that followed by a dead hang to decompress. Like last week, I did the tib raises/calf raises in the garage as treating these as the first exercise of the lifting session. These felt fine, could feel a little fatigue in them. Bendy long bar pulls again. The “lighter” session. I am feeling like it is crunch time with the competition coming up now. I do wonder with how suit integration will be with Ms. Funk in training prep. I think I’m partly concerned in that I know my deadlift had taken a dive at some point a year ago and I’ve realized that I can use the old markers for what now will be with time available and work put in with my age. I’ve seen that I’ve had to put in a bit more work in the uncomfortable zone to maintain. So there is that plus my weight is down 25lbs or so from last wearing the suits. Not worth it to get new ones nor would there likely be time for one to be made and arrive to really train on it (if a customized one). But likely a next week issue. As this was the light session. Last week with the 513lbs for 5x2 had taken a good bit out of me. I was fresh off recovering from the cold (still have mucus remnants) and my lower back was quite sore until like yesterday from that. Which I’ve not really had this entire time with training the deadlift with Ms. Funk. So I knew that had been pushed a good bit. So this session the notes were 465-475lbs for 4x4. So about what I had done two weeks ago minus the holds at lockout. I decided to go for the heavier end on this considering that I knew I should be good for it. I of course treated it like the 3lbs didn’t count like I’ve been doing here. This would be close to what I did the first heavy week of these for my down sets for triples. I definitely didn’t tap into what I did last week here. First set felt rough but I know that that isn’t always a good indicator for the session. Like that first session where I had 453lbs for sets of 6 reps and the first set felt like RPE 10 almost and then made the second set feel really easy. Now it didn’t become that great of a contrast this time around but I didn’t feel like any sets were as rough as the first set. The second set though did feel easier but I think part of that was that the one side the extenders weren’t secure enough and slid a few inches making the flex more apparent. I did adjust them after that and thankfully that didn’t make things feel like the first set as I was worried that had been the case why the second set felt good. These pulls are really stressing my bracing and I feel I’m getting better at that. Got these done and took a little break to teardown and rehydrate before moving on to the rest of the session. The next thing was the timed sandbag box squats. Same weight but longer time (30 vs 20) and one set dropped. My hope was that my air was back compared to last time. I could still work through it but I’d rather not feel that winded. Only the knee sleeves like last time. I did have an added level of difficulty as apparently I had a hangnail on my left thumb and the dryness caused it to crack and bleed a good bit. So I had to manage blood time while doing these. If I didn’t have that going on, I may have done an accumulation set so that the first set didn’t feel so rough on the knees as that had been the case last time. But soldiered one here. The added time was noticed as far as recovery between sets. But this wasn’t bad. Another break to get stuff setup for the next thing and get some more fluids in me. Next being the new superset of the single leg dumbbell rdls and the dumbbell raises. The reps were lowered on the rdls but weight was suggested as what I did for my top set last time or a little heavier. Since only my last set had been done the right way (offset loading), I stuck to the lighter option here. The raises were the same weight but more reps so I knew that was going to be challenging as well. I used slightly more weight and more reps with my warm ups to hopefully get used to the discomfort. Nope. The rdls were rough right from the start. I think on these I get a little paranoid that not going low enough but video says even the ones that felt “high” are going to the spot I want these at. Balance is really tricky on these. I had thought the one side was my lagging side but it seems to depend on weight and such. Like the one side it felt tougher for the lower body part but the other side it was the core/upper body. Video also makes the dumbbell not look so large. I did take about 25 seconds rest between sides on these as this variation is quite a bit more taxing. The raises did not start out well. The first set I felt like I had misloaded something or was not recovered or something because it felt damn heavy. The weight did feel better on the following sets besides it being really tough on the t fly variation. I took a little more rest compared to last time with like 15 seconds rest between the variations. The last thing then for this session was those Jefferson curls again. Told to add weight as long as feeling good on my lower back. 3x8 for the sets. I had used just barbell to get used to the movement and make sure that I was feeling good here. My plan was to just do 65lbs but I did one rep and it was way too light for what I was planning so I added 20lbs more. But I guess I can handle more as that also felt light so I added 10lbs per set. I had though jumping to 95lbs after 65lbs was too big a jump (or even from the 45lbs) but I guess not. It is a little more taxing on the arms with this weight added. I can see these helping with picking up stones and sandbags. I was starting to regret drinking anything after the superset on these this time around. But finished these up and put stuff away and ate dinner, followed by stretching.