December 8, 2025 – Week 15, Day 1

Dynamic Warm Up

Axle Push Presses
40x8
70x5
100x3
130x2
160x2
190x2
220x4
220x4
220x4
220x4
220x4
220x4

Neutral Grip Incline Dumbbell Bench Presses
40’sx10
70’sx8
70’sx8
70’sx8
70’sx8
70’sx8

Dumbbell Push Presses (5 second eccentrics first 3 reps)
70’sx3+3
70’sx3+3
70’sx3+3
70’sx3+3

Yielding Barbell Z Presses (3 seconds forehead)/Heels Elevated Goblet Squats (4-0-4-0 tempo)
65x3/bw+10x10
105x6/bw+50x10
110x6/bw+50x10
115x6/bw+50x10

Supinated Bent Over Dumbbell Drag Rows/Supported No Touch Single Leg Reverse Lunges
80’sx15 -- bwx15/15
80’sx15 -- bwx15/15
80’sx15 -- bwx15/15

Stretching

Comments: Last week had not been ideal and seemed to end on a high note for me with at least getting the training sessions done at home without incident and getting some relief in the wrist/forearm. But not meant to last I guess. The shot was just a quick fix and I noticed on even Sunday that some of the symptoms were coming back. On top of that, the cold I thought I had at bay came back with a vengeance and got worse on Monday. I did at least get some walking in on Sunday. Weight just under 260lbs this time. Monday at work really sucked and I felt like I was in a fog mentally and I was going to have to spend the next day catching up on the work I did. Some of it had been from Friday. Thankfully the workload for this session wasn’t crazy and reduced some in intensity on the pressing so should be manageable. But it was really damn cold. The work stress was a bit compounded by having some things at home adjusted. Soft tissue foam rolling was fine. Some needed for lower legs and good bit for my quads (especially the right side) and so did upper back which has seemed to be par the course as of late. Can be a bit tricky with figuring out what is stiff/sore as I’ve been taking Dayquil and allergy meds. Neck rehab stuff followed. Didn’t feel quite as good as my upper body was feeling quite stiff and resistant. But this was needed to get some things to relax. From there stretches for hips, knees, ankles and hamstrings. Did a dead hang as well before going on to train. Below freezing outside. Axle out of the rack again. More reps and lighter weight session. Plan being 6x4 with 220lbs. I wasn’t going to try and fudge in any little bit on that. I wanted to get myself through an overhead session without a missed rep or incident today. Just the usual with warming up here with 30lbs jumps. For the most part, I felt powerful but not necessarily stable. The stability hasn’t been feeling there lately but power seems to be there. The stability issue was most present on the second set and thankfully I didn’t have it that bad the rest of the session. I just told myself each set I was doing just 4 reps regardless which set I was on and maybe that helped with getting these done. Into the garage for incline dumbbell stuff. Yet another merciful reduction in weight on these this time around. Notes were 70-75lbs for 5x8, and aim to keep shoulders pinned down. I only went with the lighter range on these because that meant I was just using my solid dumbbells here rather than having to spend time getting the plateloaded ones setup and I could go from one thing to the next. I figured this was a reduction in intensity as winding down the accessory stuff for the contest prep. Solid dumbbells feel better on these anyways but I got limited options. I was able to keep things moving pretty smooth and quickly here with sets and rests. Two things down on the workout and it was bck outside for dumbbell push pressing with the 5 seconds eccentrics. Same weight as last week but adjustment to what I was doing. So now 4x6 but only doing the accentuated negatives on the first 3 reps and then normal style reps for the other 3. This did not make things easier as there was still that fatigue and then having to change up gears. My timing seems off with doing them without the long eccentric so this was a little tricky for me and I felt that the normal reps were harder with balance and such. I think my upper back has been getting worked real hard lately with the dumbbell raises which might explain that wobbles. Or maybe not. But I was glad to be done with these and get back inside the garage at least for the rest of the session. At this time, I was noticing that the right wrist was feeling stressed by the session so I was keeping an eye on it. It was making me anxious but it was a load worse last week and I was able to do everything without modification. This was more caution on my part and trying to figure out plan of managing going forward as this wasn’t going to be a quick fix. The first pairing for the garage stuff was again z presses and heel elevated tempo goblet squats. Some changes from last week. The z presses had been really rough last week. The change was now 3x6 but doing them with pauses on the way down at forehead for 3 seconds. I refer to them as yielding vs pausing to differentiate when I pause on the movement. I’ve done these for deadlifts a fair amount and I don’t know if I’ve done them for overhead before. So I wasn’t too sure what I could handle here so initially I was looking at 95lbs but my warm up set had this feeling too light so I went with 105lbs and that was also feeling like too easy so I added 5lbs each set with it feeling right at the end. The goblet squats were same weight as last week but 10 reps instead. These felt fine and it was more the upper body needing to recover and adjust here. I didn’t take as long of rests between the exercises compared to the past few sessions as my shoulders felt like they were recovering enough between rounds this week. I did take slightly longer before the last set. Last pairing for the evening being the weird rows and the supported single leg thingies. Same weight and sets as last time but both now being 15 reps. Notes were go for the pump. The rows with how the wrist is position had me a little leery as well as how holding onto my dip stand for the single leg stuff also may stress things. I did some fine tuning here to make sure I was moving well and put in the work here to finish up the session. Put stuff away and got to eating dinner and taking out the trash. Stretched and took cold medicine before bed. Really need to get over this.