December 4, 2025 – Week 14, Day 2

Dynamic Warm Up

Long Bar Deadlifts (straps)
143x5
235x3
323x2
Add Holds at Lockout (1 second)
373x1
413x1
463x4
463x4
463x4
463x4

Safety Squat Bar Front Box Squats (21”)
65x6
115x5
155x4
205x3
245x2
280x4
280x4
280x4
280x4

Paused Snatch Grip Romanian Deadlifts (straps, 2 seconds)/Chest Supported I Flys and T Flys
265x3/10’sx5+5
355x6/21’sx12+12
355x6/21’sx12+12
355x6/21’sx12+12
355x6

Jefferson Curls
45x10
45x10
45x10

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

Stretching

Comments: The transition from the offsite to onsite is not an easy one apparently. It was not made better with the weather this week. In office Monday and then at home Tuesday back to previous schedule due to snow keeping people home and then an abundance of caution leading to 2hr delay to start time on Wednesday. Which meant I could get my normal sleep hours Monday and Tuesday night. You’d think I’d be rested but apparently not. There is some in office stress as I’m surrounded by sick people that refuse to use leave. One a cubicle behind me and the other two cubicles in front. And I guess driving home with it already being pitch black at 5:00PM doesn’t help with feeling energetic. I did not walk on Tuesday as didn’t want to risk injury slipping on ice/snow after work (plows coming through not until later) so just shoveled snow from the patio and driveway once they had done the last sweep. My right forearm/wrist still swollen and annoying. I got home from work Wednesday and I just felt off mentally. I was still I guess stewing on how axle press had felt and I know that I have a harder time keeping negative thoughts at bay when I’m tired and stressed out. My shoulders and upper back were feeling beat, front of my left shin felt like it was cramping near the end of the day and my knees were both feeling achy so I made the executive decision to just not workout. It literally felt like I had not recovered at all from Monday was like I was doing a back to back session. So plan now was eat dinner earlier and get to bed. I also took antinflammatories for the wrist/forearm not so much for pain but to see if the swelling would go down. I did feel better Thursday. Maybe because both of those people that were hacking and coughing finally took a day off but I seemed to have some energy and pep in my step after work coming home so got ready for training finally. Foam rolling was ok. Calves were a little tight but alright and then my quads were really tight. Not unexpected as I’ve not done any walking this week and there were the goblet squats again. Upper back was needing the foam rolling as well. Neck rehab followed and that was needed. As mentioned, 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 was glad these didn’t feel off considering how things felt the day before. Moving the training day wasn’t really ideal but this week wasn’t going to be ideal with the strongman gym closed this weekend for a powerlifting meet. Then time for garage work. Bendy long bar pulls again. It was what I was expecting it to be with 10lbs less than last time but doing 4x4. It had been 4-5x6 two weeks prior and then it was 6x2 last week. With the wrist/forearm thing, I was being cautious with stuff like Monday and seeing what was tolerable. With these, it was honestly just getting the straps tight on the right side as fine motor skills seem to be the most impacted. Otherwise, I was good. As far as how these went, I feel they about in between with how the best sets felt two weeks ago and how the sets felt last week. I’d love to have them feel like the easy sets two weeks ago were but take what I can get considering the circumstances. As such, I kind of split the difference with the pauses at lockout. Too short initially and too long last week. Just right this time I feel. I was able to keep rests fairly consistent like last week which was good considering the increased reps per set. There were some reps (generally the first reps) during these sets where it felt perfect and some that felt a little out of position. But held firm. From there, I got a little bit of a drink and put stuff away for what comes next. Our dear friend ssb front box squats. Weight back up and reps decreased. Suggested being 275-280lbs for 4x4. I went with 280lbs. I was a little leery with my knees feeling as achy as they were but figured that I’d be ok as they have felt worse and I’ve done more reps and sets when like that. It is also funny to me that I seem to “heat up” more on squats vs deadlifts as I didn’t really feel like I broke a sweat on the deadlifts but was feeling like it on squats.  I was able to keep the rests similar to the deadlifts here as well so that was a positive. Again, would’ve preferred that knees not aching but take what I can. Another break to get fluids in me as I put stuff away for what came next. Which was a surprising change. It has been a triset of posterior chain, upper back and then hamstrings for the longest time and that ended today. No and offset superset. I say that as I was to be doing 4 sets of the one and only 3 sets of the other. Which was fine by me. So the two things that survived the cull were the paused snatch grip rdls and the upper back dumbbell raises. Same weights as last week but rep changes. The rdls were now 6 reps instead of the suggested 6-8 from last week and the raises 12 reps a piece. Notes were to have the pause on the rdls be more distinct (ie actually 2 seconds) so I figured that since I keep counting fast on this exercise that I’ll count longer to get it right. So did 3 seconds which appears to have done the trick. That added time does feel noticeable. I wasn’t too worried about these as the reps were lower and I should be good here. The biggest hurdle was more seeing that my wrist/forearm would tolerate these and I knew they would from the deadlifts earlier. The raises was a little more of a question mark for me. The leverages/torque with these at extension can put some odd strains on joints. This was also more reps than last week with this weight so that was going to be something. Thankfully, no issues with these other than just being tough and exhausting. I took 15 seconds rest the first two sets between the two variations and then 20 seconds on the last set (that was a tough one). I was able to take shorter rests compared to the past few times since wasn’t further fatiguing my posterior chain with band leg curls. Normally I move on to the last thing for the session but not so fast this time around.  I did put stuff away but not fully as I still needed the bar at least. The plan here was to do a new exercise for me called Jefferson curls after an old time strongman who did these. It has been used more recently as a rounded back/spinal flexion exercise to lengthen and strengthen the lumbars. It does seem to be against the grain of the modalities of back pain stuff that is anti-flexion and pro extension and stabilization. But some activities/sports have demand for the movement, like this one. Anyways, this was added and plan was to do 3x10 with just the bar or a little weight. The style is often done with standing on a box and holding a barbell and trying to go past the feet. I have seen a variation with holding the weight in the crook of the arms like a zercher style and I figured I’d rather do that considering the forearm/wrist issue at the moment and I’d rather not be standing on something in the garage with the clearance issues nor having to go back my long ass feet. I was very slow and methodical on the first set but it seemed fine and I sped up the movement for the following two sets. Definitely feeling the stretch and tension at the bottom of the movement. Not sure if progression here is weight or reps really at this time. Oddly enough, this might have actually helped me get a bit more ready for the last thing which was those sandbag marches. My understanding is this is the last week of them. Same weight but another set of 20 seconds added. Of all the exercises, this was the one I was the most nervous about with the wrist/forearm. I wasn’t sure if I could secure a grip or hold the bag on the pick (I didn’t think there would be an issue with the holding on my person and marching). Thankfully, no such issue. I tried to keep the rests shorter than I had the previous two times of these which I think I met. I could tell that my legs were getting a little exhausted from these with how they were moving a little slow and felt heavy. But I felt good and just kept on moving. With these finally done, I was able to get my dinner finished and get some fluids in me. Stretched and took some more ibuprofen before bed to see if that helped with the swelling.