December 27, 2025 – Week 17, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

19” Cambered Squat Bar Box Squats
85x10
135x8
185x6
235x4
285x2
335x6
335x6
335x6
335x6

Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (left side only)
49x5
72x4
94x3
108x2
122x2
137x1
152x1
167x1
180x0
180x0
180x0

Comments: Like last week, I felt like I wasn’t able to get the sleep I wanted. I wasn’t able to sleep in for Christmas and had to get up like I was going to work in the office as normal. I did have a good time with family. I got in walks on both Thursday and Friday. Friday for work also sucked as I was one of two people in the unit working that day so two people getting the work that normally goes to 5-7 (I honestly don’t know who does what anymore). So that made Friday sucky on top of the weather making it too dangerous to go out after work. So plan was go to bed early and hopefully feel rested for Saturday. Not planning on going out early to make sure roads are clear and such. I was worried I wasn’t recovered for training. Mostly thinking my upper body but my hips and knees were feeling suit work. I have bruises from that. I had messed around after work with my single ply suit to see if I could get it to fit better around my thighs. I slept a decent bit but felt I was up too early and went back to bed for a little longer or so I thought. What I thought was 15 minutes ended up being 75 minutes. I got stuff ready for the day and was on my merry way. Not as much bad driving as last weekend but still some bad driving. I was kind of surprised there were people training strongman when I showed up as usually they are there earlier. I made sure I got the stones I was playing to use out of the cold corridor (and not lock myself out) so that they wouldn’t be bad with the tacky later. Soft tissue work started things off. Calves needed a decent amount but not a ton again on the tops. Quads didn’t need much really so kind of surprised there. Maybe the walking has helped. Upper back felt good doing it. Neck rehab stuff was ok. Feeling a little better with the aches and tightness compared to the past week. Left shoulder feeling slightly less tense. I did throw in a biceps stretch here as well. I then did stretches hips, hamstrings, knees and ankles and then a dead hang. On to weights. Cambered squat bar box squats. Plan was same weight as last week but 4x6. I was given leeway in adding weight here like the past two weeks but I was considering just sticking to 335lbs with 50lbs jumps as last week’s session felt like a lot and this was the first thing. The racks I’ve used for squats were in use so I was relegated to the monolift. I’ve been leery about using it because I’ve not really used it before. I’ve used one previously but it had instructions and often people using it to help out. So I made guesses and I figured it out. Squats felt rough today. Not in the my knees were stiff kind of way warming up. Like my legs felt tired doing 235lbs. I did get a boost of confidence when I put on the belt for 285lbs but unracking 335lbs that first time I was standing there reconsidering training today with how heavy it felt. But I committed to it. These were not easy feeling squats today. These were tough and I had to take over 4 minutes to rest between sets here. It did not bode well for the rest of the session but I figured I’d keep going. From there, it was on to circus dumbbell. Super nervous because of the biceps. The plan here was to do 180lbs for 2x1. So hit my training max from a few weeks back for two sets and then do the 30 second sets with 10lbs more from last week again. I wasn’t sure what shape I was in. I did end up talking with people during the lighter sets. I think that was partly to see if my legs recovered more. I didn’t feel great on dumbbell until I did 122lbs and it went up easy and fast. But that was last time the dumbbell felt good. I didn’t want to make too big a jumps as I know things get squirrelly above 150lbs. 167lbs wasn’t a great lift but I felt it was close enough for a warm up set to attempt 180lbs. I did the stand up and pull down style for the lifts up to 152lbs and then just standard above that. I got set for 180lbs and the clean wasn’t great. Thankfully no issues for my biceps. It didn’t quite land in the right spot so I had to adjust with my other hand and I felt it was up there too long and the trajectory was off. Had to bail on it. Considering how 170lbs went last week at the start, I knew this was a possibility but use that as my “last warm up” and take about 4 minutes and give it another go. The clean was less effort but I never could get stable as each time I tried to go for the dip, I’d stumble a bit. I didn’t even attempt the press this time. Another 4 minutes or so to give this another shot. Just wasn’t there today. I felt dejected and there was a lot of workout left. I felt tired and I didn’t want to spend several hours more at the gym if I was obviously dragging ass. Feeling the stress of being 6 weeks out I think on top of just the workload of training and work. I can tell when I’m getting that way when I get angry/annoyed seeing people’s PRs on things I’m training on that are not up to the standards I want them to be. Put stuff away and got home to get dinner ready and just spend the rest of the week getting affairs in order and hopefully getting the rest I need and disinvite myself from this little pity party funk I’m in. But I guess one terrible training session out of 51 isn't bad odds.