December 6, 2025 – Week 14, Day 3

Dynamic Warm Up

19” Cambered Squat Bar Box Squats
85x10
135x8
185x6
235x4
285x2
335x5
335x5
335x5
335x5

Circus Dumbbell Clean and Presses (left side only)
56x5
76x4
96x3
112x2
130x2
142x2
152x5
152x5
152x5 (2 misses)

Yoke and Sandbag Carries (50’ run back)
Y - 165x50’
Y - 165x50’
Y - 255x50’
Y - 255x50’
Y - 345x50’
Y - 435x50’
525xpick (3 seconds)/175xpick (3 seconds)
525x50’/175x50’ in 25.04 seconds
525x50’/175x50’ in 23.16 seconds
525x50’/175x50’ in 23.63 seconds

ATG Split Squats (10”)/V-Ups
bwx8/8 – bwx12
bwx8/8 – bwx12
bwx8/8 – bwx12
bwx8/8 – bwx12

Incline Treadmill Walking (10 degree)
10 minutes at 3mph

Stretching

Comments: As I mentioned, this week has not been ideal. The sickies were back in the office and I again was feeling low energy leaving work and was feeling like I was fighting a brain fog all day. Probably didn’t help that I got someone else’s work to do since they are behind and not doing the job right. I’m actually not sure if they will be staying with the unit. So that added to what I had planned. My wrist/forearm wasn’t feeling better today and was a little more swollen than it was after the two nights of ibuprofen. Not unreasonable to think that the stress from training added to that. But I made the decision in the afternoon to be on the safe side and make sure it wasn’t more than an inflamed tendon from overuse so went to the injury clinic after work. It was really cold so even motivation to walk after work was at 0% interest. No issues with my bones and it was what I thought and what I was doing with ibuprofen and rest would eventually resolve it. But they offered a cortisone shot that would take the inflammation down drastically in about a day so I went with that as it was more the swelling making things difficult with fine motor skills with that hand. I didn’t notice an immediate difference and there was some discomfort later after the numbing agent wore off at the injection (it was a long ass needle). I was also feeling like I might have a cold again so sleep was priority. Woke feeling mostly refreshed. 90% of the swelling is gone and feels a ton better. Also seems the rest put the cold at bay. Now to figure out if I was training today or not. It was about freezing today and the Lancaster gym was closed for a powerlifting meet today and tomorrow. So options were at home or at the local gym if I wanted to not be freezing for most of the session. The thing I was most worried about was circus dumbbell and making sure I was recovered for that and if adjusting stuff for next week to allow another day rest made sense. But I figured the lower body stuff wasn’t as intense that one less day of rest would impact things too bad and catch back up this coming week. But still anxious about the circus dumbbell. Soft tissue work started things off. Calves needed a decent amount but not a ton. The left needed it more today. Quads still needed it a fair amount (a lot on the right) compared to everything else. Upper back needed it today too. Neck rehab stuff was ok. I needed these today. This was followed by stretching of the hips, hamstrings, knees and ankles and then a dead hang. On to the weights in the garage. I started out wearing my warm ups setting up stuff but eventually disrobed as I was working up quite a sweat. I become like a space heater. Cambered squat bar box squats for the first thing. It was going to be ssb box squats but that because Ms. Funk didn’t know I had a csb at home. So the plan here was 335lbs for 4x5 this week. So an increase in weight but decrease in reps and sets. Considering how the past two weeks went, this shouldn’t be an issue other than just getting used to the reps I think. Comparatively, these felt tougher than the ssb front box squats did earlier this week but closer in effort this time around. My knees were stiff as shit doing the empty bar here. Box not ideal setup with needing to elevate it 1” from my easier setup to match the gym training. The slightly narrower rack actually helped with hand placement on these. I did 50lbs jumps here. I knew I’d get these done and these wouldn’t be a max effort even if I wasn’t feeling my best just from experience of the previous heavier sessions before last week. Got that done and put stuff away as well as partially setting up for event work later. I was trying to stave off doing the circus dumbbell as that was what had me the most nervous. I didn’t enjoy the misses I had last week and that didn’t help with the issue I had with axle near the end of the set this past Monday. The circumstances weren’t going to be ideal not at the gym with being outside with near freezing. This isn’t unusual for me since doing the home gym stuff because of COVID stuff but it has been about 2yrs since I have. So what is different with this compared to the strongman gym besides being outside with snow around was that I had to work up to my circus dumbbell. I have a selection of dumbbells at the gym but I have one beefy dumbbell that is 130lbs empty. It has a thicker handle and is larger plate diameter than what I’ve been using and what I will likely be doing at the competition. Warming up would be using a Fat Gripz Extreme on my plateloadable dumbbell handles with 25’s and such to get up to the dumbbell and then add weights. And I wasn’t too keen on doing multiple reps with that setup to warm up but I did to make sure I got used to it. My lower back and core were still feeling Wednesday session to be sure. I was also not sure if my upper back was also recovered enough. The plan here was 150-155lbs for 3x5 reps. So an inverse of the session from three weeks prior. I knew that this would be a tough one and it was going to be quite difficult with the circumstances. I’m not used to my dumbbell and the added grip needed was going to tax my arms more so I wasn’t really expecting to do touch and go reps initially. This was a big reason I wanted to get the swelling down in my non-lifting arm to assist here. Trying to take lessons from last time with trying to get more hips into the clean to assist to the shoulder. I was a little lax in that on the first rep of the first set and I think that had me slow the pace a bit here as I really didn’t want to have any misses. The dumbbell feels thick and solid and sits a little different with it being about an 1” thicker. Even with this pacing, this was about a minute to get the five reps. I took a quite long rest here. Talking powerlifting meet attempt rest. I wanted to make sure I recovered (mentally and physically) and warmed up a bit before going again. But I was feeling a bit more confident going into the second set. Pacing went better this time around and I was about 7 seconds faster completing the reps compared to the first set. Another long rest but I cut it about 2 minutes shorter than the previous (long rests all feel the same to me) and I was hopeful of getting through this with no misses on the reps. Perhaps I was a little too cocky with how I approached the last set. The first rep went up so good that I went for a touch and go rep on the second. Which was a mistake. I got it but the thicker handle had me not have as secure a grip on the clean so it was more in my fingers vs in my palm and I had it dance around on me at lockout. I’m actually surprised I managed to secure that one. So I didn’t do that again and went back to doing dead stop recleans and taking breathes between reps. I took a little longer to catch my breath after that but was still on pace to match the previous set even with that. But that little maneuver caught up to me and I was too fatigued in the upper body to stabilize going for that last rep. I tried it again after taking about five breathes and it did not get as close as it was the first attempt. Just one rep left. So I took off my wrist wraps and went into my patio/sunroom to get take some deep breathes and try to get the fatigue out of my arms to give it one more shot. I needed about a minute and came out there and hit that rep like it should’ve gone the first two times. I did a little dance overhead with it for dominance and flipped it off after dropping it (as is custom at this time). Not an ideal end to this but I survived. This cold and dryness has not been helpful for my knuckles as the scrapes/gashes from the filling up the sandbag and using the other circus bell with bolts on it has those reopening constantly with the pressure from overhead and even deadlifts. I left the circus dumbbell stuff mostly untouched so I could move on to the event work I needed to do out in the street. And I wanted to get that down before the sun set. From there it was on to yoke and sandbag. Combining them this time. Not sure if that is going forward or just for this session due to not being able to do the usual thing. I was happy that this wasn’t timed yoke runs as I wasn’t sure I could get my dad to come over to do that if I had to. But with it being a medley, I could set it up to get my times later from viewing the video. The plan here was to have this be light as the sandbag part was like 55% of contest weight whereas yoke being 70%. I would get my times but I wasn’t going to beat myself up on these as far as getting great times. This was first time having the events together and not ideal. My street has a decent slant to it so one set is going to be uphill and one set is going to be downhill so usually faster on the downhill vs uphill. Also, the yoke is a wobbly one. I didn’t bother with the sandbag with warming up and did just the yoke until I got to the working weight. My knees had felt a little achy so I did a pick and hold with both working weights on the implements to make sure I was feeling good. My starts were feeling decent with the working weight but I could tell I wasn’t quite up to par that first set on the yoke. I also felt I was slowing down to get to the mark to stop, drop and run back. I will say that my running mechanics felt smooth and natural as I went back to the bag. Can’t say that has been the case in the past. I’ve sometimes (often) felt stiff and tight in the knees but not here. I grabbed the sandbag low to have it feel more like how the sandbag husafell would feel. I feel that I improved on each set. My last set wasn’t as fast as my second set but it was close and since going uphill vs downhill, it was probably my best if flat surface and whatnot. I do feel that I was perhaps a bit optimistic with expectations of time for contest but may have to adjust that with how things have felt. I mostly put the yoke and sandbag stuff away before moving on to the last things that was lifting related. Same superset as last week of split squat progression and the v-ups. Changes in reps and sets. Advised to go to lower box height on the split squats and for 8 reps and to do 12 reps on the v-ups. Four sets this time around. These weren’t too bad. I was able to get secure setup here at 10”. As has been the case, right side has more issues vs left. The v-ups with the increased reps were tougher. I feel I was bit more consistent with reps this time around but not perfect. I pretty much did these back to back with the only rest being a breath between sides on the split squats and laying on the cold concrete for a few moments until my abs weren’t feeling like crap. Finally put everything away that I was using before doing the “recovery” time. Listed as doing 10 minutes of walking preferably on incline. It was cold out and I figured that a more intense thing would be having myself walk on the treadmill at max incline instead. That way I could control things a little better. I couldn’t get my pulse to register (it is old). I was surprised how much my glutes were working on these. But finally done and able to decompress and stretch out. I probably should’ve ordered deliver sooner than I did as it came like an hour later than I had wanted it to. Oh well.